Project Greenglow - History

Before Greenglow

The (then) British Aerospace work on gravitation theory was started in 1986 by Dr. Ron Evans, then in the Advanced Technology Group, at BAe Warton. The Group has developed as an advanced concepts "think tank" under many names for over thirty years and supported "eccentric" studies including space vehicles and anti-gravity.

The Group was formed in 1964 as the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) Aerospace Department, with about a dozen members, specifically to undertake a Ministry of Aviation contract to study Hypersonic Aircraft design. Back then, Concorde was approaching first flight and those tasked with looking into the future were beginning to investigate the possibility of a Mach 6 follow-on aircraft.

From economic considerations, it quickly became clear that a hypersonic passenger plane was a non-starter. So studies concentrated on the design of re-usable Space Launchers, comparable with similar studies in the US which eventually led to the NASA Space Shuttle (FLIGHT International, 24 March 1966). Although scientists on both sides of the Atlantic had been studying the possibility of a recoverable space-ship for some years, the BAC Warton plan was one of the first to move away from the idea of launching spacecraft with booster stages that were jettisoned as scrap as the vehicle gained height (INTERCOM). It saw the design as three virtually identical units (cluster) of two boosters and the orbital craft (see picture). The boosters would take the main vehicle towards an orbital trajectory at 200,000 feet and then return to base. The craft would then go into orbit, complete its mission and return to earth for a normal landing at about 100 mph. The project was code-named MUSTARD, standing for Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device.

Meanwhile, Hawker Siddeley (HS), at Kingston, were also engaged on parallel MoA contracts to study hypersonic vehicle designs. HS Kingston worked on Mach 5 Fighters and Transports and looked at various space launchers. In 1964 they started on a collaboration with Junkers, of Germany, on a project called "Space Transporter". Because of HS's Harrier links with McDonnell at St. Louis, they joined with them on early Shuttle designs, having a team in place in the US in 1967.

In 1970 the BAC Team was invited to join a Shuttle Study Team led by North American Rockwell, and was able to contribute valuable experience of large airframe manufacture and also of supersonic passenger aircraft gained on Concorde. However, after 1972, when the UK and European governments decided not to seek further participation in the Space Shuttle Programme the US went on alone. Although MUSTARD never got beyond the design stages, a reminder of the Project still exists in the form of a small model on display in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.

It was in December 1986 that Ron Evans first discussed the gravitational analogue of electromagnetism, leading to the missing curl term, with Professor Eric Laithwaite at his office in Imperial College, London.

In 1988 Sandy Kidd's Inertial Drive experiments were going on at Dundee University and he was offered the opportunity to test his propulsive device at Warton. He accepted, and a series of tests on his machine were conducted in the Warton LSWT Calibration Laboratory during 1989. However, no thrust, or change in weight were detected from the device. However, during a second series of tests in 1991, a tiny anomalous weight change was measured in one trial.

Around this time, BAe Warton was once again involved in "Space Ships", with the design of HOTOL (HOrizontal Take-Off and Landing) a single stage to orbit vehicle.

In 1990 BAe sponsored a joint University-Industry Round Table on Gravitational Research(PDF).

A small design study was later undertaken by the Advanced Technology Department, looking at what vehicle designs might evolve should an inertial thrust engine become a reality. Some preliminary designs were done by Dave Cundy of Advanced Projects, for three anti-gravity concepts; a Stealth Fighter, a City Hopper and a Heavy Lifter.

it was felt that if the fighter's anti-gravity engine were to emit green rays it would look more exciting. The artist duly obliged with the alterations and the seed was sown for Project Greenglow.

Some of the earlier anti-gravity studies were exposed to public view during Brian Young's inaugural lecture as the Visiting Professor of Aerospace Design at Salford University in 1991 and in his lecture, 'Anti-Gravity! The End of Aerodynamics?', given to the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, at their HQ in London in 1992.

Work on the theoretical investigation of gravito-inertial propulsion has continued slowly, with some experimental studies being done at the University of Central Lancashire in 1996. The BAe Gravity Study entered a new era in 1997 after the publication of details of the NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Programme. A programme of work was then undertaken by BAe in collaboration with the University of Lancaster. Collaboration with other academic establishments, companies and private individuals continued as Project Greenglow.

Following the initial Design Study, trying to anticipate how gravito-inertial propulsion might influence future aerospace vehicle designs and spheres of operation, the work remained stalled until Professor John Allen of Cranfield University, formerly the Chief Future Projects Engineer at BAe Kingston agreed to carry-out some imagineering work for a second phase Design Study.

Project Greenglow (1997-2004)

1997 - 2000

In response to the NASA BPP Program, the Technologist Panel at BAe Warton supported a similar, although smaller, programme, based on small University Studies.  The collective name Project Greenglow was chosen, as it had links with our earlier programme. The following three goals were proposed:

    1) Field Propulsion
    2) New Energy Sources
    3) Supersede global transport

Greenglow was an unclassified programme and the Universities were encouraged to publish peer-reviewed papers of their work.  Each year a Review of Progress was held either at BAe Head Office, in London, or at one of the participating Universities.  The universities involved were:-
 1998

John E. Allen, the Visiting Professor of Aerospace Design at the Cranfield Institute of Technology and one time Chief of Future Projects at British Aerospace Kingston (home of the Hawk & Harrier) was also the Technical Consultant for Project Greenglow, and as such was asked to investigate the design changes which might result if an "Anti-Gravity Drive" ever became available.  He submitted a report which, following subsequent updates, was finally published in the journal "Progress in Aerospace Sciences" (Vol. 38, 2002) as "The Quest for a Novel Force”(PDF).

2000 -2004

The year 2000 was the year of the merger between BAe and GEC Marconi, out of which came the formation of the BAE Systems.  The separate Company Research Centres were combined as the Advanced Technology Centre (ATC).  It was decided that responsibility for funding Greenglow should pass to the ATC, under the direction of Dr. Brian Wardrop, the ATC Chief Technologist.  After Dr. Wardrop’s retirement in 2002, the Budgetary Control was passed to  Dr. Vaughan Stanger. Ron Evans remained as the Technical Co-ordinator based at Warton, the Site becoming the centre of the Air Systems Business Unit.

In September 2000, the NASA BPP Team and those engaged on Project Greenglow met at Warton to share results and discuss future plans.  The BAE Systems team was led by Dr. Bill Martin, while Marc Millis led the NASA team.

The NASA BPP Team invited the Greenglow academics to present papers at the 37th AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference, at Salt Lake City, in 2001.  Three papers were presented.

The Greenglow academics were also influential during the formation of the Institute of Physics (IoP) Gravity Group and Dr. Walter Johnston, from BAE Systems, was co-opted onto the Group’s Committee as the Industrial Representative.    

In February 2001 John Allen and Dr Evans attended the First International Workshop in Field Propulsion, held at Sussex University.  The Workshop, part-sponsored by the BNSC, was organised by Graham Ennis and was an interesting and well run event.  The joint Chairmen were Mr. Ennis and Dr. Anders Hansson.

ATC funding was agreed in 2001, with the following Universities:
 In May 2003, an International High-Frequency Gravity Wave Conference was held in the USA, sponsored by the MITRE Corporation.  The co-chairmen were Dr. Robert Baker and Dr. Ning Li.  The BAE Systems representative at the Conference was Dr. Walter Johnston.

The Final Review of Project Greenglow was held at Birmingham University in December 2004, attended by academics and scientists from industry and government.

After Greenglow

Ron Evans was contacted by Nic Young, a producer for the BBC's "Horizon" scientific documentary series in 2015, resulting in the episode "Project Greenglow - The Quest for Gravity Control" broadcast on 22nd March 2016 (refer to the main page for download details).

Ron has also presented at the Alternative Propulsion Engineering Conference in 2021 and 2022 on the history of Greenglow and gravitomagnetism, and published two books on those subjects.

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Last Modified 17th December 2024