A study of the levitation forces related to superconducting bearing design was conducted on free‐sintered and melt‐textured Y1Ba2Cu3O7−&dgr;(YBCO) materials. Comparisons were made between free sintered, variously oriented, and randomly oriented melt‐textured materials. Magnetic force measurements were also conducted on oriented YBCO before and after neutron irradiation. A magnetic bearing of new design utilizing the phenomenon of flux pinning was then fabricated using melt‐textured YBCO with permanent magnets and a speed of 135 000 rpm was achieved. Rotational dissipation and magnetic stiffness measurements were performed on the bearing prototype.