Most of us interested in inertial propulsion eventually find themselves imagining their own version of a “Universal Drive” — a mechanism that could produce thrust using only internal motion. So I’m just curious… Hypothetically… What kind of mechanism have YOU been thinking about? Would it use rotating masses, reciprocating masses, or something else entirely? Where would the asymmetry come from? Would it produce a continuous push, or a pulsed impulse? No need for a finished design — sketches and/or half-formed ideas are welcome. Some of the most interesting discussions I have had start with the machines people have only been dreaming about.

It was postulated using a wheel (disc type) rotating at a low RPM (say 60 RPMs) with several gyroscopes mounted on bearings around the edge but on the flat surface, with the gyro's flywheels at a 90 degree angle to the plane of the first wheel. With the gyros all running at high speed, when the disc/wheel is rotated the gyros would remain in position relative to each other and not impede the rotation of the wheel/disc. If each gyro was locked in place through 90 to 180 degrees of the rotation of the wheel/disc and then released for the rest of the wheel/disc's rotation one could generate a semi-linear thrust. Keep in mind that there would NEED to be a pair of wheel/discs...