Physics of magnetic propulsion

The flight of a magnetic vehicle is expected at the expense of the electrodynamic lift and thrust force of interaction with the natural magnetic field and with the eddy currents in ground or water at low altitudes. It would present in future an alternative to rocketry and aviation owing to the expected better efficiency, constant mass and pure ecology. The principles of the magnetic propulsion (Prog Aerospace Sci 2001;37:245–61) allow to substantiate the proposed application and variant of design of the magnetic flight vehicle, to clarify its advantageous properties and to determine the main problems to be solved for its creation. The reviewed questions of its theory show a number of its important advantages.One of them is the possible performance of aerospace and interplanetary flights by the same unit. The proposed calculation basis for the numerical estimations and corresponding numerical examples would allow to image this vehicle structural features and to compare variants.