The woman who may have discovered anti-gravity propulsion, received NASA and Pentagon funding, went dark under classified DoD work, and died in the same city — and the same field — as Amy Eskridge.
§ 01 — Who Was Dr. Ning Li?
Ning Li was born in Shandong, China, on 14 January 1943. She graduated from the Department of Physics at Peking University and emigrated with her family to the United States in 1983. By the early 1990s she had joined the University of Alabama in Huntsville's Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research — the same city, and the same institutional ecosystem, where Amy Eskridge would later pursue the same field of research.
Working alongside co-author Douglas Torr, Li published a series of papers between 1991 and 1993 that stopped the scientific community cold. Her central claim: that an anti-gravity effect could be produced by rotating ions to create a gravitomagnetic field perpendicular to their spin axis — a practical mechanism for generating what physicists call gravitomagnetic shielding. In plain terms, she was proposing a device that could create localised anti-gravity. The papers were peer-reviewed. They were taken seriously. Discover magazine ran a feature in 1999 that caused a significant stir in aerospace research circles.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center — the largest NASA centre in the United States, the same institution where Joshua LeBlanc would later lead nuclear propulsion programs, and where Amy Eskridge's father Richard had spent his career as a plasma physicist — took notice. Marshall provided funding for Li's research. The Department of Defense followed. By the late 1990s, Li had received approximately $450,000 in confirmed DoD funding and had built the first 12-inch High Temperature Superconducting Disk of its kind in the world — a component central to her anti-gravity device.
§ 02 — The Device, the Company, and the Silence
In 1999, Li left UAH and founded AC Gravity LLC, a private company established to commercialise her anti-gravity research. The formation of a private company is consistent with transitioning from academic research to classified or commercially sensitive development. It is also the point at which her public record begins to thin.
She gave at least one documented presentation in 2003. That same year she sent a private email to colleagues claiming she had observed "11 kilowatts of output effect" during an experiment. The significance of that figure — what it meant in the context of her device, what it proved or disproved — has never been publicly explained. That email is the last known correspondence from Ning Li in any public or verifiable record.
The silence was noticed immediately by those who had been following her work. Journalist Tim Ventura attempted to reach her repeatedly beginning in 2004, trying every two months via an email address provided by physicist Eugene Podkletnov, one of her peers in the field. Someone was reading the messages. Nobody replied. When Ventura contacted Podkletnov directly, the physicist confirmed Li was alive, still working with the Department of Defense, and simply unable to discuss her research. Podkletnov acknowledged he no longer had a working contact number or email address for her himself.
For nearly two decades, this was the public record on Ning Li: brilliant, funded, suddenly unreachable, confirmed alive by a peer who could not contact her. The internet produced millions of views on the question of what had happened to her. The answer, when it finally came, was both more prosaic and more troubling than the speculation.
§ 03 — What Her Son Confirmed
In 2023, the Huntsville Business Journal tracked down and spoke with Li's son, Dr. George Men. He confirmed what had happened and why his mother had disappeared from public life. Ning Li had been struck by a vehicle on the UAH campus. The accident caused severe brain damage. She subsequently developed Alzheimer's disease and spent the remaining years of her life in cognitive decline. She died peacefully on 27 July 2021 in Huntsville, Alabama, at the age of 78.
Her funeral was held on 1 August 2021 at Berryhill Funeral Home. Her obituary, published by the funeral home, described her as "one of the world's leading scientists in super-conductivity anti-gravity" and confirmed she had built the first 12-inch HTSD of the world in the late 1990s. She is survived by her son Dr. George Men and grandchildren Vivian YingYing Men and Andy YangYang Men.
Her research — the experimental data, the device specifications, the 11 kilowatts of output effect she reported in 2003 — has never been publicly released or discussed by any government agency. Whether it was classified, lost, or continues to be developed in a form the public cannot see, is not known.
Ning Li died on 27 July 2021 in Huntsville, Alabama, from Alzheimer's disease — a condition that developed following severe brain damage sustained when she was struck by a vehicle on the UAH campus at an unspecified earlier date. Her son Dr. George Men confirmed the circumstances to the Huntsville Business Journal in 2023.
The official cause of death is natural — Alzheimer's disease. There is no allegation of foul play in her death. What remains unresolved is the fate of her research, the classified work she conducted for the Department of Defense after 2003, and what the "11 kilowatts of output effect" she reported that year actually represented.
Rep. Eric Burlison raised her case formally in April 2026 alongside Matthew Sullivan, noting the pattern of scientists connected to classified advanced-physics research dying or disappearing. She is the earliest documented case in the series.
§ 04 — Connections Within the Series
Three specific and documented connections place Ning Li within this series.
First, the field. Dr. Ning Li spent her career researching anti-gravity propulsion — the same field Amy Eskridge (Case 01) was working in when she died in Huntsville in June 2022, less than a year after Li's death. Eskridge co-founded the Institute for Exotic Science specifically to pursue anti-gravity research, and had publicly stated that this work had made her the target of harassment. Li and Eskridge were in the same city, pursuing the same physics, separated by less than twelve months in their deaths.
Second, the institution. Li received confirmed NASA Marshall Space Flight Center funding during her UAH research career. NASA Marshall is also the institution where Joshua LeBlanc (Case 12) led nuclear propulsion programs until his death in 2025, and where Amy Eskridge's father Richard Eskridge spent his career as a plasma physicist. The University of Alabama in Huntsville, where Li conducted her research, is also where Tony Moffatt (Case 13) worked as Principal Research Engineer, and where Andrew Moffatt worked as a Research Engineer and Scientist at the time of his death.
Third, the silence. Her research went classified and dark simultaneously, in a manner consistent with the operational security profile of a DoD contractor who has produced results of strategic significance. The output figure she reported in 2003 — 11 kilowatts — has never been explained. Her research company never produced a public product. No academic paper followed. No government program connected to her name has ever been officially confirmed or denied.
No law enforcement agency has officially confirmed connections between these cases. The FBI is actively investigating for links. Each case is being investigated independently by local and federal authorities. This page records documented facts. Readers are encouraged to consult primary sources and form their own view.
Sources: Huntsville Business Journal (July 2023) · Berryhill Funeral Home obituary (August 2021) · Wikipedia — Ning Li (physicist) · Newsweek (April 2026) · Rep. Eric Burlison public statements (April 2026) · Discover magazine (1999) · Quora research thread (confirmed via Huntsville Business Journal) · Fox News (April 2026).