The Lifter is an asymmetrical capacitor which uses High Voltage ( > 20KV ) to produce a thrust.

The Lifter uses the Biefeld-Brown effect discovered by Thomas Townsend Brown in 1928. The basic design of the Lifter has been fully described in the Townsend Brown US Patent N°2949550 filed on Aug 16, 1960 and titled "Elektrokinetic Apparatus", you will find in this patent the full description of the main principle used in the Lifter devices :
<< It is therefore an object of my invention to provide an apparatus for converting the energy of an electrical potential directly into a mechanical force suitable for causing relative motion between a structure and the surrounding medium. It is another object of this invention to provide a novel apparatus for converting and electrical potential directly to usable kinetic energy.
It is another object of this invention to provide a novel apparatus for converting electrostatic energy directly into kinetic energy.
It is another object of this invention to provide a vehicle motivated by electrostatic energy without the use of moving parts.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a self- propelled vehicle without moving parts. It is a feature of my invention to provide an apparatus for producing relative motion between a structure and the surrounding medium which apparatus includes a pair of electrodes of appropriate form held in fixed spaced relation to each other and immersed in a dielectric medium and oppositely charged. It is another feature of my invention to provide apparatus which includes a body defining one electrode, another separate electrode supported in fixed spaced relation by said body, and a source of high electrical potential connected between the body and the separate electrode. >> ( Extract from US Patent N°2949550 filed on Aug 16, 1960 titled "Elektrokinetic Apparatus" )

effect explanation