How CID works at low RPM

 About Dr. Robert H. (“Bobby”) Nichols, Jr.

Dr. Robert H. “Bobby” Nichols, Jr. (1964–2020) was a physicist, planetary scientist, and educator whose pioneering curiosity extended from isotope cosmochemistry to advanced propulsion physics.
He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Washington University in St. Louis and served as a Senior Research Scientist at the university’s McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, later teaching physics and engineering at Cumberland University and Young Harris College.

Dr. Nichols published extensively in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta and NASA-supported studies on early solar-system materials. In his later years, he explored mechanical, propellantless propulsion concepts, producing the original Nichols Project Description (2011) that helped inspire continued research into the Centrifugal Impulse Drive (CID™).

He is remembered not only for his deep scientific insight but also for his generosity, humor, and devotion to exploring ideas far ahead of their time.

This paper explores the behavior of opposing magnetic fields acting as a non-contact spring, capable of storing and releasing energy while maintaining equilibrium between dynamic forces.
The same principle is applied in the Centrifugal Impulse Drive (CID™), where opposing magnetic fields dampen and balance the centrifugal and centripetal forces on the rotor arm.
This equilibrium holds the rotor in place until it reaches the stator gap, where the magnetic field releases and the arm is thrown outward, generating a measurable propulsive impulse.