Can someone explain what's going on here?

[TinselKoala]

Yep. There are several ways to get... or think you will get.... antigravity and/or reactionless propulsion out of a precessing gyro system.  So far, though, none of them have worked in practice, and some of the claims Laithewaite made over the years, he realized finally were wrong, and he had the guts to retract them publicly. Not all though.

[Pirate88179]

TK:

A long time ago i saw a movie where some guy in a barn had a horizontal shaft with a gyro on each end.  It was geared such that, when the shaft was rotated around the vertical shaft, both gyros turned as the horizontal shaft rotated about the vertical axis.  At the bottom was an electric motor that was plugged in some where.  When the motor turned the vertIcal shaft, both gyros turned and...it raised up in the air like a helicopter.  This was not a video, it was some documentary that appeared to be from the 60's somewhere.  After seeing this, I always wanted to try to replicate this someday.  After reading your explanations...it appears that the device I described would not work.

Bill

(EDIT)  I am still not sure how that movie was faked but...i agree that it had to be.

[TinselKoala]

Maybe not, you could be talking about one of Sandy Kidd's demonstrations. Again, not faked, exactly, but not what it seems either.

http://www.gyroscopes.org/propulsion.asp

[Lakes]

I seem to remember Tk had a video... something like a motor on a gimbal mounted on a rod of some sort.

[sparks]

  Why always up and down and not back and forth?