Dr. Franklin B. Mead, Jr.

Dr. Franklin B. Mead, Jr. had a 34-year career at AFRL and its predecessor laboratories at Edwards AFB. In 1972, he edited 'Advanced Propulsion Concepts - Project Outgrowth' (AFRPL-TR-72-31) at the Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory. In 1990, he was project manager for a DPF fusion propulsion study at Phillips Laboratory. In 1992, he managed Nachamkin's force-free time-harmonic plasmoid model (PL-TR-92-3044) under contract F04611-88-C-0020. From 1996-2001, he co-managed the Lightcraft Technology Demonstrator program with Dr. Leik Myrabo of RPI, demonstrating laser propulsion at the High Energy Laser System Test Facility. In 2003, he was Principal Investigator/Project Manager for the Davis Ball Lightning Study (AFRL-PR-ED-TR-2002-0039, JON 48470159). In 2004, he managed the Davis Teleportation Physics Study (AFRL-PR-ED-TR-2003-0034) and the Davis Advanced Propulsion Study (AFRL-PR-ED-TR-2004-0024), both under contract F04611-99-C-0025. In 2006, he co-authored the Knecht/Mead DPF paper (AFRL-PR-ED-TP-2005-359) that explicitly lists 'pulsed-train plasmoid weapons' and 'gravity devices' as military applications. In 2007, he co-authored the Davis/Mead Laser Lightcraft review (AFRL-PR-ED-TP-2007-470). The same project number (JON 48470159) and the same AFRL office (PRSP, Edwards AFB) funded all of the plasma orb research.