Lifter-9 Construction Details

The Lifter-9 is American Antigravity's largest lifter to date, measuring over 9-feet on each side and containing 36 interconnected lifting cells. This page provides information on the process of constructing this lifter, which is scheduled for early 2004 testing.
Foil collectors being cut from 4cm wide strips. Struts being assembled and reinforced. Interior lifting cell structure waiting for foil collector. Foil collector being rolled onto the foil collector. High-voltage emitter wire being installed on edge of exterior lifting cell.

 



Lifter-9 Main Page

Learn more about our largest and most powerful lifter prototype! click here

L9 Performance

High Performance- Based on the performance of the older Lifter-4 prototype tested by American Antigravity, it is expected that the Lifter-9 should demonstrate substantially higher levels of thrust and a much greater level of overall performance.

 

The expectation for increased performance is partially the result of the longer length of the wire-foil combination responsible for generating Lifter thrust.

 

Additionally, American Antigravity is planning on using a much larger power-supply while testing the Lifter-9, using up to perhaps 10-times the output power of the 250-watt GRA-50 currently being tested.

Older Designs

Predecessor- The Lifter 4 prototype is the direct predecessor to American Antigravity's Lifter-9 design. For more information on the Lifter-4 experimental test-results, check out the L4 page online. click here

 

Foil Layout

The foil has been layed out to be cut into a series of collector-strips that are wrapped around the balsa lifting-cell frames. click here

Foil for the collector is laid out and cut into 6-foot long, 4cm wide strips.

Foil Collectors

In this photo, the foil has been cut into strips - 6cm tall and 9-feet in length each. Six of these long foil strips are required. click here

Here is the completed cutting of the foil into 6-foot collector strips.

Balsa Struts

The balsa struts have been created. There are six 3-foot frames and nine 1.5-foot frames required for the Lifter-9's composite cells. click here

The basla-frame consisted of both 3-foot exterior cells (shown in photo), and 1.5 foot interior cells.

Balsa Vertical Struts

This is a closeup of the ends of each of the 3-foot triangular frames required for the Lifter-9. Each vertical strut is 15cm in height. click here

The edges of the lifting cells are reinforced for increased structural support.

Pre-Assembly

The 3-foot and 1.5-foot lifting cells are shown here being prepared to be wrapped with the foil collector stips. click here

The 3-foot exterior and 1-5-foot interior lifting cell frames are shown together, awaiting assembly.

Lifter-9 Construction Overview

The Lifter-9 is constructed from a set of six main lifting cells measuring 3-feet on each side, and a collection of nine smaller interior lifting cells measuring 1.5-feet on each side. These cells are wrapped with the foil collector-strips, and then mounted inside each other to form the completed frame for the 9-foot lifter.

Power-Supply Requirements

The Lifter-9 may be capable of being lifted by the 250-watt GRA-50 power-supply in use for testing purposes by American Antigravity, however, the L9 was designed to use a much larger supply under construction by Information Unlimited.

To learn more about Information Unlimited high-voltage power-supplies, visit their site online at: click here

Performance Expectations

Assuming that the Lifter-9 is able to be tested using a very high output power-supply prototype under construction by Information Unlimited, performance levels could exceed the 10-pound mark.

This is partially due to the greater length of the Lifter-9's wire-foil combination compared to the older Lifter-4 design. The six larger lifting cells in the Lifter-9 should have a combined length of 54 feet of wire-foil combination, and the 9 smaller cells should have a combined total of 40.5 feet of lifting-length, for a total of 94.5 feet of wire-foil combination. This is considerably greater than the combined length of the wire-foil combination for the older Lifter-4, which has only approximately 30-feet of lifting length providing thrust.