Smoke Ring Propulsion 

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Oh man! I thought the thumbnail was some upper body x-ray or something!!

Your dedication to the most impractical methods of flight is impressive, as is the ingenuity you apply to the designs.

2:35 you have to love RU-vid ads

oh my god I watched that same documentary! I can't remember exactly what they were using it for, but i thought it was something spacey, like an elevator climber or a solar sail demo, although they were getting a lot more thrust than photon pressure because of that plasma so maybe that's just what my young space-obsessed brain was thinking, not realizing it wouldn't work above the atmosphere... Anyway awesome project! I've wanted to work with vortex rings for a while but have found very little information and your cone/funnel/bin iteration was fascinating - I'd love a "speed of ring" equation as a function of air blast strength, time, cone length, and taper, but I don't think anybody has bothered to calculate that...

This video seems like an Engineer's solution for not knowing how to vape

This could be a job for a sprinkler valve. They're meant for water but will dump a large volume of air from an air tank instantly. I've used them in a few projects. Great for air cannons. Basically they use their own pressure to seal the air. When you apply a voltage to the solenoid it allows a small amount of air to release the pressure which releases a much larger valve instantly.

That demonstration was never seen again because it involved ionic propulsion and collaterally demonstrated that it could move a much smaller projectile horizontally at speeds rivaling a bullet

Impressive that you worked out that nozzle design seemingly by intuition. I don't think I've ever encountered someone who found fluid dynamics intuitive.

I remember seeing that same laser propulsion video when I was a kid! I think what's going on is they have a pulsed laser with an optics setup that makes a wide beam that's below the energy density that will cause air breakdown, and the highly polished "UFO" aircraft focuses that beam to a density that can cause air breakdown, and the plasma pop pushes it up a little bit. No idea what kind of laser power you'd need for this, but I'd guess into a pretty substantial average watts realm on a fast pulse. If someone on here can pull off reproducing it even at garage scale I'd be impressed.

If you want a really short, powerful burst of air, look into using a QEV (quick exhaust valve) with a solenoid-controlled pilot valve. That's what I used for the full auto pneumatic blaster on my channel. Normal solenoid valves have a very long opening/closing time. QEVs can dump entire secondary tanks in a fraction of the time.

Always impressed with your inventiveness, your imagination, and your skill in reducing both to practice. All three result in steady and impressive progress.

Easily earned my subscription. Great video! Love that you include the tries that didn't go as well and explain why you went with different designs - fantastic!

The thumbnail made me lol. Great content Tom

Recently I also play with vortex ring generator using same technology as you. I tested same valve as you, but now I moved to 2v130-15. It has much larger orifice diameter that allows larger air flow with similar on/off cycle time. That resulted with larger and faster stable rings.

honestly speaking your troubleshooting skills are the best I've seen and it is quite motivating to see the way you go about figuring out the problem

I was just like, "holy shit, yes, that could totally work." and it did. I love to see how you are breaking down the problem and requirements to create a hypothesis. Thanks and keep doing good stuff.

I'm an I&C engineer with lots of experience with Solenoid Valves. I'm a little surprised that you setup worked as well as it did. A larger SV would probably be a better choice. For a 2-way solenoid valve there are really only 3 variables, voltage, Cv and pressure rating. You can get a direct acting valve, or a pilot operated valve which is slower but can have a higher pressure rating. I'm interested in seeing where you are going to take this. I always learn so much from your commitment to testing!

Making the air less turbulent before it enters the vortex creator might help with accuracy. A 3d printed part that resembles the inside of a catalytic converter might work.

6:50 you know maybe you’re getting pressure waves reflected on the chamber walls, as in two stroke exhaust chambers. There might be some formula to calculate the resonance frequency for a given geometry. With your high speed footage you could check if the vortex rings are forming at that frequency :)

You are the first person to fully explain and actually show what curiosity stream is after hearing about it dozens of times. I’m planning on signing up. Great video!

We used a trash bin with a hole mounted on a bass speaker which was powered by a step function generator. This setup could shoot across a room. It also showed very nice results when shooting with two of these synchronized towards each other.

This video thumbnail was like Legends will understand dirty minded people

your step by step approach to engineering problems like this has helped to to continue experimenting with ideas even tough i have failed like 6 times in a row.

my favourite part in this video was the slo-mo captured when the vortex hit perfectly in the middle of the second design it looked satisfing

Awesome video and really nice thumbnail!

I hope you keep moving forward with this concept. Really enjoy your videos 👍

Hi Tom, yes I remember the silver saucer propulsion system quite vividly. I still have a VHS recording of that Hyper Science episode, I watched many times with my aero enthusiast cousin Marcus (Circa 2000). In fact that doco was produced by Beyond, the Aussie production house that started Myth Busters - fun fact.... The laser beam energy was concentrated to the ring and created a pulse of plasma energy that propelled the vehicle forwards. So cool right. Duby

I always love watching your awesome projects! Always inspires me. I remember hearing about that kind of laser propulsion with Chevrolet's Chaparral 2X VGT concept car which used this technology to propel itself across the ground, crazy stuff which obviously excited my little brain!

Wow, what a flashback. Seen that video in childhood decades ago on tv. It had quite an impression on me, but I actually sought it was the light pressure that pushes that thing back than.

This is absolutely brilliant idea!!! I hope you will continue to explore it.

I think you need to find the right oscillation frequency to resonate the internal drafting rings into the main one. Just like how two stroke exhausts are perfectly tuned to resonate the pressure waves, you just need to find the right size and shape of your cone to use that to your advantage.

this device you just saw is a atmospheric espansion based flying device. it works on the principle that most atmospheric gasses expand when they get hot. something like that is actually rather easy to replicate using a old camera flasher and some kind of gong. you can flash it at it and it will generate heat on the surface acting like a small explosion making it start to move and make sound. that flying design is basically the same but it uses a light thing, a much more powerful light which is focussed at generating more heat(IR). the device also has a special geometry to make sure the air gets pushed out and in with different direction balances meaning once the light pulses and the air heats up most air movement force is aimed downward, and once the new cold air flows it it takes more from the surrounding to minimize the downward force. luckily while a good geometry helps due to inertia of mass the particles send out will want to follow their direction once the air heats up and they have their movement. but the barely moving particles in the air will just be pulled in based on how close they are to the center making it pull from all sides and so not affect the thrust tom much. the top is also optimized against wind resistance since on impact it needs to accelerate fast for a short duration and for stability ofcource. btw. heating air a lot generates plasma, it might also be optimized specifically to focus on generating static charge for plasma instead of heat. but generating the heat and making that generate the plasma is much simpeler

I remember watching that same documentary! Fascinating idea, but obviously fraught with challenges that were never fully overcome. Well done on the intuitive leap between coherent light and coherent moving air structures for the transmission of power. Nice bit of lateral thinking! Your hypothesis and development of a better cannon nozzle is worthy of a like all by itself, and I am sure some University student is going to be hard at work pinning down the variables to maximise performance!

You need to make sure the volume of the exit air "slug" needs to have a diameter to length ratio of 1:4 to create a well formed ring.. (Reynolds number critical)..

I do agree. Those extra rings following the first one was the most mesmerizing thing I ever saw.

great video, i also recall seeing that chrome disk a long ass time ago. i had a mental picture of it in mind before you showed it to me again after all these years. amazing what information the brain refuses to give up. thanks for posting!

your dedication to the most impractical approach in Fluid Dynamics is respectable sir.

You should use a “quick exhaust valve“ and dump it using the small valve you have. This is how they shoot air into the center of a filter of a vacuum system to clear the filter… I also watched this same show:)

I am so into this. Vortices & toroids have fascinated me for a long time. Keep playing with this, Tom. You have my attention!

The fast-cycling air valve could be very useful for blowing certain things with a shop compressor. Certain debris that catches in grooves or holes respond better to a quick burst than a steady stream of air. I find myself tapping the trigger or flicking the nozzle of my blow gun around, and that may do it better without all the commotion. Saves on air usage, too!

This man has improved vortex ring nozzles. This is why I like this channel. It feels like inventing

You can make your valves close faster by using a snubber instead of your free wheeling diode. A snubber is basically a capacitor-diode-resistor combination that "catches" the electrons and dissipates them in the resistor instead of letting them flow freely through the solenoid. Basically converting the magnetic energy into potential energy in the capacitor, instead of letting it die down naturally. Edit: The smaller the capacitance, the faster. But this will also increase the voltage spike. So make sure your components can handle that and maybe use an optocoupler to protect your Arduino.

Waking up on a Saturday morning, seeing that there is a new Tom Stanton video, knowing it's going to be good. What a brilliant nozzle design! Awesome slow-mo footage as well! I remember when I first saw that laser propelled spinning top that I got really wound up about the fact that these people were really selling this idea as a viable future way of space travel - suggesting to put people into a device that spins at insane revs, being hit by thousands of pulses from a terawatt laser system, then not thinking about that the thing doesn't work without an atmosphere... It was an interesting experiment for sure, just like Tom's one, but no more than that.

Great video. On the next round, consider adding an adjustable time delay circuit to the valve switches to be able to tune the switches so the valves fire at the same time. This could eliminate the multiple rings and strengthen the vortex.

2:41 I've heard about this. I've also heard that it's rubbish and doesn't actually affect the storm, which makes sense because no matter how powerful that box is, lightning and thunder will most certainly be stronger and they don't seem to stop the storm.

If you are using pulsing, I believe you need the pulsing frequency of your air to match the natural resonance frequency of your exit cone. if you use a pressure sensor to measure the pressure at the exit of the cone with the exit blocked off, then graph the pressure vs air pulsing frequency to find the lowest frequency where that pressure is lowest(local min), then maybe use half that frequency to get max pressure at exit . At 6:30, looks like you see a resonance mode. Very cool slow mo footage!

Tom, you are absolutely brilliant ... I love to see the iterations of your findings, the theory and the gained real-world essence

DUDE that design was awesome for the vortex valve, def. gonna go design one of my own now!

Really cool to see this. There's so little reliable info available for vortex-ring nozzle design. I would love to see more.

Why is no one talking about the thumbnail.

I LOVED the program about the laser flight. I saw it on cable when visiting family years ago, and could not find it at the library or the little online timei has available then. I need to find it again. Love these projects on this channel.

I’m honestly not into science like this but every video Tom makes I watch thoroughly because he keeps me engaged and informed

I love your unconventional methods of propulsion, it's really interesting

These hailstorm canons dont work in breaking un hailstorms as far as i know. I think there are some science youtubers that have made some videos on it.

Your thought process is amazing!

Love your videos Tom. You make science interesting. Thanks for taking the time!

Always very good, thank you. FWVLIW: You can propel 'craft' with ground lasers in broadly one of two ways: 1) With the photons themselves. At it's most basic you fire a laser at a sail. The photons hit the sail, and in the process transfer a little momentum to the 'craft'. There's more going on, and there are ways to improve efficiency over just using a reflective material. 2) As per the illustration. The 'craft' has a reflector designed to focus the laser light just behind it. The focussed laser light drastically heats the air just behind and the expansion of the gas (now likely plasma) provides the thrust. The devil is of course in the detail. Pros and cons: 1) Great for use in space as you can propel your 'craft' at relativistic speeds over huge distances, and you don't need to carry fuel. But as you don't get a lot of momentum transfer from photons you're going to be accelerating slowly and you want a really, a-hem, light 'craft'. 2) You get more thrust for the energy you put in which is good for acceleration and load carrying, but you need a propellent. Within the atmosphere that's no issue, but in space you'll have to carry that along with trying to manage coordinating it's use with a laser firing at you. I hope that was of interest to someone.

I love how he 3D-prints plastic templates just to draw lines on a piece of paper, as if there was no device that can print directly on paper

I remember that documentary! Thank you for the nostalgia Loved this video, super fun.

Thank you!!! I remembered this video from when I was a kid and have been wondering about it forever!

Maybe if the sail is spinning, the gyroscopic effect can stabilise it a little?

Very interesting project! For someone who owns a smoke machine I'm surprised you haven't considered using a subwoofer with high enough Xmax as the vortex generator. I think it would allow for better control and tuning of the output, by modulating the frequency and amplitude. I would suggest something at least 12" like a Dayton, which are not overly expensive. Would you consider it?

Really beautiful photography Tom. Nice you got it working so well. 🙂

I found your video on the smoke propulsion very interesting. I also made sure to come back and use your link for CuriosityStream :) Great content

You should definitely look at the response timing of the valve - I suspect they are not all acting as simultaneously as you like

I would love to see further experiments You could try more like a cone shape like just the first part of half-torus model used on the first try. Also testing frequencies on the vortex generator

As a kid, growing up in the UK I remember in the mid 70's a clip on a TV BBC 1 news show called "Nationwide" which showed a person demonstrating a "flying disc" which seemed to be an aluminium toroid, and the inventor was describing it as using an eletrostatic vortex of air through the center. Memories are coloured by time however and I was 14 then but from what I recall, he was using a very early "bilp blip" one channel MacGregor pulse moduladed radio control to turn the power on. He placed the disk in a nearby field, pulesd his transmitter and the disc went up and away at amazing speed. the news clip was about 5 min long and was never repeated because had no watto bring it back. It always intrigued me and I have searched for that clip on the internet time and again but never found it in any BBC archive. I have looked into the J L Naudin and the Townsen-Brown electrostatic lifter experiments but the lifter has to be extremely lightweight to take advantage of the ionization. The Clip I remember showed a bulky rivited toroid lokking like about 2-3 Kg in weight. Wish I could find it today. Sorrry for babbling on and thanks so much for your constantly innovative and scientific analysis of of alternate propulsion systems. People like yourself are those who will lead us forwards out of the complacent aeronautical "norm" and compel us to revist the ideas of the likes of Viktor Schauberger.

The slo-mo shots were so cool! You always do such awesome projects

Awesome, I've seen the laser projectile video as well when I was a kid and I have been searching for the footage for years. What were the sources for you, how did you find it back? Where can I find more about this laser-propelled, or should I say propulsed craft? It was so good to see it again.

Excellent stuff Tom, I'm trying to convince my mate that "assassin drones" may potentially be rendered useless by using this type of "fart cannon". The same way GA and other aircraft need to watch for wingtip vortex. I loved the rapid fire, made me think of an AA gun even more. You should see if you can knock a small quadcopter out of balance with it! That turbulence may not make flight or consistent thrust, but it may have other uses at that frequency. You could build the first "Nitrogen Dome" and be immune to death by drone.

Not sure if anyone else commented, but there were two things that made the laser propulsion work. One was the laser acting as the source of energy to propel the object. The other was the high pressure air gun used to make the object spin which gives it gyroscopic stability. Without the gyroscopic stability the object would not maintain its position over the laser beam. If you could 3D print an object thin and light enough you would only need a launch needle like they did with the laser object. Then you wouldn’t have the friction from the straw or strings holding your paper sail. I think the paper sail isn’t rigid enough and you’re losing energy from its flex and also it’s resistance as it travels. The laser object was a little more aerodynamic than your paper sail. Well done on the vortex canon and as usual an entertaining and interesting video.

This exact system was used to create the chapparal concept car from Chevrolet. It unfortunately was never used. I saw these videos years ago. It uses a high power laser to concentrate heat in a ring, creating hot air that expands and pushes against the cone, pushing the cone up and the air blast down. Worth looking up.

Dandelions "fly" by creating and hanging on to a vortex ring. Their filaments being spread out radially from a point means that there's more drag in the center, which causes a vortex ring on top of the dandelion. Im not exactly sure how this helps the dandelion fly but I think it may be that the lowest pressure area is sitting on top of dandelion, pulling it upward. Maybe these dandelions are onto something.

Absolutely love your videos keep doing the great work

Of all the times I’ve seen curiosity stream advertised, this video right here is the one that finally got me to get it. Well done 👍

Bruh. Entire PHD's could be written about all the things you just created. This is amazing.

Very good and interesting video. Just the hailcannons mentioned at the start are actually a hoax. But they´re still fun ;)

yoo that thumbnail kinda sus😳

Explaining it with the MotoGP bikes worked wonders for me Tom!!! Thanks so much

I love these videos that just explore a concept. Not sure if you have any practical use planned for this or if it's just science for the sake of science, but it's fascinating.

ayyy

2:23 test now, gay test what the actual fuck google?

Brilliant work! Keep it up as it's something you are very, very good at.

I was just thinking about this yesterday, and here's your video!

Hail cannons are complete nonsense.

So, you'll need a anti-sway bar for the sail, some self-correcting constructive feed back loop for either the sail staying on the string or self centring too the vortex for detached operation. Flaps and very fine polyethylene string(fabber)/wire(engineer)/lines(kites)/sheets(nautical). If you get it too work it'll be beautiful like a ship in a bottle, save that it's a ship that sails on a bottle instead. :) Good luck.

I love the last expression - when regular air blast 💥 moved sailer greater distance than vortex😄, waiting for part 2

You knew *exactly* what you were doing with that thumb-nail, kid. Well done.

You could add some rifling to your nozzle. Maybe polygonal and/or gain-twist rifling. Could also give wax paper and/or teflon lubricant a go, for reducing friction.

Never really thought about the affects of trying to fire multiple rapid vortex rings. Really enjoy your videos and experiments.

That was a stroke of genius coming up with that nozzle design!

The vortices are single waves of a resonant frequency of the chamber. If you pulse the jets at half this frequency it will cause constructive interference and many times the power.

Your nozzle looks like a tuned exhaust we use(d) for RC 2-stroke engines. This could explain your multiple smoke-rings/vortices.

For more volume maybe look into a solenoid fired sprinkler valve for irrigation. Been used for spud guns for decades. No idea if opening/closing is fast enough but pressure/volume could be adjusted up to 80-115psi

The Lightcraft was invented by Dr. Leik Myrabo. It used a high power laser aimed at the bottom a spinning, ringed disk . The laser hit heated the surface to produce thrust. Also the entire plane was spinning to stabilize it in flight.

You hit it out of the ballpark with this video Tom! Nice video footage and content.👍

That thumbnail got me in the first half... Ngl 2 circles with air vortex in the center of both.... Oh god.... I should call her....

this is really cool man!, thank you! 👍🏼

I love this video the final bit is what made it extra