RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
That would be nice.....here we are, sittin in the future, and I'm still waiting for my flying car!!!
Secret Aircraft
- Thread starter Dark Matter
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That would be nice.....here we are, sittin in the future, and I'm still waiting for my flying car!!!
evangilder
"Shooter"
How about this :
The Moller Sky Car
And let's not forget this latest one, The Terrafugia:
Lots of attempts over the years. Nothing has caught on yet.
Experiments with Flying Cars
The Moller Sky Car
And let's not forget this latest one, The Terrafugia:
Lots of attempts over the years. Nothing has caught on yet.
Experiments with Flying Cars
Matt308
Glock Perfection
DARPA is building a "Jeep" that holds four warriors and flys. That should be interesting. Claim is they need it for areas like Afghanistan.
vikingBerserker
Lieutenant General
Something like that has been done before in 1943. Kinda interesting concept IMHO.
Hafner Rotabuggy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hafner Rotabuggy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
drgondog
Major
The General Relativity Theory would require an 'infinite universe' to attain the Velocity of light, as attaining the velocity of light requires a divisor approaching zero ------------> requiring an infinite quantity of energy which is not available in a finite universe with finite mass.
The more interesting question may no be "how fast may we travel in our space-time continuum" , but "will we be able to travel to distant locations in this space-time continuum far faster than light travels over a period of time?"
Monstrous Gravity Wells like Black holes raise the theoretical questions of 'worm hole' connectivity between such masses (like perhaps from one Black Hole in one galaxy to another - or others - in a different Galaxy/Star sytem)
There is no theoretical approach for a vehicle or surviving approaching the Event Horizon, but supposing an artificial 'black hole' could be theoretically constructed (and safely contained) as part of a stellar vehicle, could it be designed to create a constant singularity that a.) links with other singularities, and b.) maintains a 'relative time' throughout the transfer (i.e Not pass 2 millions years into future during this 'trip0)', and c.) be able to navigates back to desired Space-Time locus?
drgondog
Major
In the 'vehicle' approaching the velocity of light, perception of relative time lapse within the vehicle approaches zero while the observing frame of reference (i.e. your twin brother on Earth) perceives Newtonian time passage as normal.
The travelling twin brother, while travelling near light speeds perceives his trip at those speeds as a 'blink of the eye' while the brother on Earth dies of old age as well as all the kids, grandchildren, etc - depending on how far the light speed vehicle travels in Newtonian Space-Time. When the vehicle slows down the perception and experience of time within the decellerating vehicle more closely matches the external Newtonian frame of reference..
Matt308
Glock Perfection
How about first flight with a 20kW fuel cell on 7 July. With twice the efficency of a piston engine from tank to propeller, a motorized glider has achieved 44% efficiency. A range of 466miles at 105mph, the motorglider's only emission is water vapor. This was accomplished by the Antares DLR-H2.
BombTaxi
Tech Sergeant
Like Joe Haldeman's time-travelling soldier William Mandella?
William Mandella - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I haven't read these books, but they are essentially an investigation of the phenomena that Bill just explained. FTL travel throws up some huge questions - even if it is possible, what will it do to human beings and human societies? Even long-distance sub-light travel throws up a range of human and social issues that will have be dealt with alongside the scientific ones...
Junkers88A1
Staff Sergeant
so i just say.. go tie fighters 
drgondog
Major
BombTaxi
Tech Sergeant
That rings a bell - can't think of the title of the top of my head, but it was definitely Heinlein, and there have been similar stories coming out ever since. The Forever Wars were part of that movement
Lastvautour
Recruit
I am not a physicist but maybe one should circumvent the speed of light. If one can bend light, one should perhaps look at folding light/space and just step through to your destination. I am sure the "skunk works" have more than they let on.
Gravity driven vehicles. Getting rid of the tracks for maglift trains is probably just around the corner.
Gravity driven vehicles. Getting rid of the tracks for maglift trains is probably just around the corner.
river
Airman
Hi,
Bahhh, the speed of light is just another barrier we'll have to break. We did it to sound, so we can do it to light.
For pete's sake... if we can't beat the speed of light then how are we going to effectively find other inhabitated planets and wage war on them.
river
Bahhh, the speed of light is just another barrier we'll have to break. We did it to sound, so we can do it to light.
For pete's sake... if we can't beat the speed of light then how are we going to effectively find other inhabitated planets and wage war on them.
river
Colin1
Senior Master Sergeant
There is no natural implication that simply because we broke the sound barrier, we will one day break the luminal barrier, or whatever it will be called. Relativity had no say in exceeding the sound barrier but it will have plenty of say in FTL travel (or information transfer). With the benefit of hindsight, exceeding sound was merely appropriate aerodynamics coupled with a powerful enough engine - that will not/can never be enough to exceed light.
RabidAlien
1st Lieutenant
Heh. 100 years from now, somebody's gonna be having a discussion on whatever they use for forums (telepathy, perhaps?) and say "with the benefit of hindsight, exceeding light was merely ____and____ coupled with _____. That can never be enough to exceed ____!" 
They also said man would never fly. Or walk on the moon. Tell someone (especially a group of scientists with funding) that they can't do something, and they'll do it just to prove you wrong. Humans are like that.
**slithers off to communicate with mothership**
They also said man would never fly. Or walk on the moon. Tell someone (especially a group of scientists with funding) that they can't do something, and they'll do it just to prove you wrong. Humans are like that.**slithers off to communicate with mothership**
Butters
Senior Airman
If you believe that scientists are destined to find a loophole in GR theory that allows faster-than-light travel, I've got a design for a perpetual motion machine that I think you'll wanna invest in.
BTW, there is not, nor ever was, a sound 'barrier'...
JL
BTW, there is not, nor ever was, a sound 'barrier'...
JL
beaupower32
Tech Sergeant
Flyboy2
Senior Airman
The idea behind an ion engine is that high energy gases are stripped of there electrons and then shot out to create some sort of force, using Newton's 1st law of motion to get the ship to go somewhere. Of course this is nothing like a TIE Fighter that uses ion engines to manuveur like an earth bound fighter jet, rather its a version of propulsion like rockets.
If you are familiar with the movie and book 2001: A Space Odyssey the spaceship Discovery uses a nuclear powered ion drive. It is noted that Discovery is the fastest ship to be ever created by humans yet still takes about two years to reach its final destination.
To answer your question concerning the speed of light, it is impossible to break the speed of light. Einstein's theories are exact and revolve around the fact that light will always reach its target, making it possible to travel relatively faster than the light photon. However the speed of light 3.0x10^8 is attainable, but you are not actually outrunning light.
It is possible to cheat the speed of light to produce a similar effect. The newest and most accessible theory to this is made possible by a sub-atomic particle called tachyons. Although I don't understand the math behind them, tachyons have an imaginary mass (i-mass) allowing them to travel faster than the speed of light. If any ship were enveloped in a concentrated tachyonic field it would allow the ship to travel faster than light.
Other universe hoping theories include creating a gravitational singularity strong enough to bend space time. Imagine folding a paper in half, the distance from each side has no shrunk considerably. Theoretically this is also possible in space, by bending space with a gravitational field. We can also use worm holes apparently. However this is all speculation.
If you are familiar with the movie and book 2001: A Space Odyssey the spaceship Discovery uses a nuclear powered ion drive. It is noted that Discovery is the fastest ship to be ever created by humans yet still takes about two years to reach its final destination.
To answer your question concerning the speed of light, it is impossible to break the speed of light. Einstein's theories are exact and revolve around the fact that light will always reach its target, making it possible to travel relatively faster than the light photon. However the speed of light 3.0x10^8 is attainable, but you are not actually outrunning light.
It is possible to cheat the speed of light to produce a similar effect. The newest and most accessible theory to this is made possible by a sub-atomic particle called tachyons. Although I don't understand the math behind them, tachyons have an imaginary mass (i-mass) allowing them to travel faster than the speed of light. If any ship were enveloped in a concentrated tachyonic field it would allow the ship to travel faster than light.
Other universe hoping theories include creating a gravitational singularity strong enough to bend space time. Imagine folding a paper in half, the distance from each side has no shrunk considerably. Theoretically this is also possible in space, by bending space with a gravitational field. We can also use worm holes apparently. However this is all speculation.
Aaron Brooks Wolters
Brigadier General
Nothing is impossible. It just take a group of determined people working together toward the same goal.8)
Colin1
Senior Master Sergeant
Aaron, read my post
nobody said it was impossible, I pointed out that exceeding the trans-sonic threshold does not imply that we will do the same to any trans-luminal threshold as a matter of course.
My main point in that post is that we WILL NOT do it with appropriate aerodynamics and a nice, big powerplant.
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