Secret Aircraft

[Dark Matter]

Does any one know when were going to have aircraft that Hover and fly without jet, rocket or piston engines

And is it possible to go the speed of light

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Well they will require some kind of propulsion, so what kind of engine are you thinking about?

[Dark Matter]

Like some sort of ray?
Or a matter moving material?
Or an energy cnonverter of some sort?

I dont know, its the Future!

[Waynos]

If you want to visit ATS (abovetopsecret.com) some of the more fanciful members there already think the B-2 flies using anti grav technology. Though why you would want that in a plane that is just a big wing is not made clear.

[Dark Matter]

I'm talking about without wings.

[davparlr]

I have heard of ideas of powering some sort of airborne machine that would us a beam projected from the ground for power like microwaves. This type of power typically has a low energy density so such a vehicle would be rather light, probably unmanned.

According to Einstein's theories, as speed approaches the speed of light, relative mass increases toward infinity(simplistically). So to make it to the speed of light, infinite energy would be required. Therefore, the speed of light cannot be obtained, thus not exceeded. I think!

[Dark Matter]

Why do they say that if you go past the speed of light, time goes backwards

[BombTaxi]

I think the idea of 'ray' propulsion is still really sci-fi at the moment. The nearest thing I can think of is maglev technology, but that is effective over altitudes of a few feet, not thousands. Any propulsive system is governed by the old chestnut "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". So, an engine has to emit something in order to provide thrust.

It is theoretically possible to use something like a rail gun to launch a craft, but range and maneverability would be dictated by maximum velocity at launch, which is itself limited by materials technology and human physiology. So it is of little practical value for military and/or civil aviation applications.

As for aircraft without wings, it simply ain't gonna work within Earth's atmosphere. At present, you still need an airfoil to generate lift. I don't see how that requirement can be dropped without fundamentally changing or even scrapping flight as we know it...

[Dark Matter]

I know that.

[Waynos]

So why ask?

[Colin1]

Does any one know when were going to have aircraft that Hover and fly without jet, rocket or piston engines

And is it possible to go the speed of light

There's a concept called ion engines but I don't know where they are with them. Last time I looked, they could move very (very) small masses with extremely modest levels of thrust. You may be more familiar with the concept from the ion engines in Star Wars, the Empire used them in their TIE (Twin Ion Engine) Fighters; suffice it to say we're nowhere near that level of performance yet. Life imitating Art.

Well currently, no. As you increase the energy required to exceed 1.0c, you increase your mass in direct proportion, requiring a further increase in energy to overcome your new mass and thus increasing your mass again. You might look to the Star Trek universe for the possible answer to this one but I'm afraid I'm a bit sketchy on warp field theory

Can't rule it out though, they said we'd never dogfight at 600mph then Korea happened...

[Dark Matter]

So why ask?

I wanted to see what you guys thought.

[Colin1]

Why do they say that if you go past the speed of light, time goes backwards

Regarding your question wrt linear time (time the way we traditionally view it)
imagine a large'ish clock 100 metres away from you, you can see the second hand moving clearly from one second to the next. The time it takes the passage of time from one second to the next is relayed to you at the speed of light ie what you can visibly see.

There is, over 100m, a nano-fractional delay incurred from the time the clock strikes the next second, until the visual information of that second being struck reaches your eye but that's negligible here.

Now imagine that visual information being transmitted to your eye from the clock at speeds greater than light, let's say 2.0c. The nano-fractional delay is easily overcome by this and you will receive the visual information at your eye at some time before that second is physically reached by the clock's second hand.

Clearly (I hope) there is a causality issue here and if superluminal travel (or in the case of my example, information transfer) were possible, there'd be some very strange issues to deal with.

[lingo]

Does any one know when were going to have aircraft that Hover and fly without jet, rocket or piston engines

If someone who knew did tell you he would have to kill you immediately due to the security implications!


And is it possible to go the speed of light

Not yet!

[Velius]

I dont know, its the Future!

It's the way of the future, the way of the future, the way of the future, it's way of the future, the way of the future.....