GIT Building Page

New Technology Engineering in Progress:
The Gyroscopic Inertial Thruster (GIT)

Visit my Homepage: HERE


Visit These Other Fascinating GIT Pages!

David Cowlishaw (GIT Inventor)
Amanda Gilbert
Britt Beaubian


NEW! My Third GIT! and an attempt at the dreaded PENDULUM TEST! HERE
NOTE: I would like to hear from other GIT builders, especially any credible reports of a GIT passing the pendulum test: E-Mail: Dann McCreary

I am busy these days doing some applied engineering in a new technology - working on an invention by David Cowlishaw. This invention is the Gyroscopic Inertial Thruster, or GIT. The inventor claims that it produces a unidirectional force, or reactionless thrust - that is, force which can result in the motion of the GIT (and any conveyance or apparatus connected to it) without pushing or throwing any mass in the opposite direction!

I have been interested in "reactionless" propulsion for more than thirty years, having been quite excited by reports about the Dean Drive (first seen by me in Popular Mechanics), another "unidirectional force" machine. The Dean Drive was eventually (and loudly) proclaimed to be unworkable. To discover another drive which appears to be a real contender has been very exciting; the more I think through the theory, the more persuaded I have been as to its validity.

If this invention works as David describes, then I expect we will see the colonization of the Moon and Mars begun in my lifetime. :)

The development of the GIT will also mark the beginning of the end of road building. :)

The GIT could also lift Nana and Papa's Flying House!!! :)

News Flash! Son of Mini Git Operational!


Well, last night I slapped together a "micro-git". This one is built from a 2" PVC pipe fitting. It has several interesting features:

It is small, yet it showed noticeable thrust, moving across a smooth coffee table surface.

This GIT was "slapped together" in almost no time; anyone can make one; I sized the race "gear-ratio" empirically by using cardboard and hot-melt glue to hold one side temporarily while I "fit" the orbital to the other more open side. The race supports are simply pieces of wood (pine shims) cut to size and hot-melt glued in place.

The orbital is a "super-ball", a high-density plastic/rubber ball. Using a rubber ball rather than steel or glass solves the problem of "slipping", providing positive rolling traction all around the race and against any type of drive wheel.

Unfortunately, after a short while of operation my drive wheel (from a spool of thread, hot-melt glued to the motor shaft!) gave out. Yes, it was a kludge! Yes, it is a little too large and not perfectly round! But the GIT did move, and I could feel the "pull" when I held its tail!

Well, I tried a pendulum test; that was disappointing.

I hung a balsa plank by four threads from a 2X4 laid across the top of some open closet doors; to this I taped the "micro-git", facing along the long axis of the plank. I set a trash can at the back end of the plank as a "benchmark", started the GIT and only observed a little oscillation back and forth.

I don't consider this conclusive yet at all; I really need a GIT with perhaps more orbitals, more speed, and better craftsmanship.

Meanwhile, I am back to trying to build my third GIT. Number One (described below) is STILL waiting for some parts from the machine shop. (sigh!)

The bottom line? Something is going on here, and I'm ramping up for more GIT building, more tests (maybe the water test next for "micro?"), and improved engineering. If only there were about 80 hours in a day!


Here are some pictures of my first feeble attempt at building a GIT. (I owe a debt of gratitude to James Hurl of Australia for some of his ideas for simplifying GIT construction.)

This picture shows the GIT, with one of the orbitals visible, next to a film can for scale. (Note the duct tape! I was anxious to get this baby moving and see what it would do!)

The next picture is from a different angle, with the electric motor driven friction wheel visible. (one of the problems with this first attempt is that the wheel is too small, and it kind of flings the orbitals around the race).

The final picture shows the GIT (barely) moving across a "frictionless" surface (teflon fry-pan).

The next stage of GIT construction will occur when I get some parts back from the machine shop - a properly sized drive wheel, an arbor shaft to drive it, and a shaft adapter to connect it to an electric motor "borrowed" from an remote-control glider.

The experiment of greatest interest to me is the "pendulum test" - this involves hanging the thruster as a pendulum, observing that the pendulum is "plumb" - i.e. vertical with respect to gravity, and then turning on the GIT. If the GIT is truly producing an inertial thrust, the pendulum will move off plumb in the direction of the thrust and remain off plumb as long as the GIT is running.

For details of the history and development of the GIT, please visit the inventor's amazing home page. Thanks, David!

For progress reports on my personal experiments with the GIT, drop back here from time to time.