It looks like aircraft and engines as we know them will be with us for some time yet, despite claims that an anti-gravity device and warp drive are on the cards.
Scientists at the Tampere University Institute of Materials in Finland thought they had found the holy grail recently while conducting experiments into superconductivity. Tests showed a small drop in the weight of objects placed over the device, as if it were shielding the object from the effects of gravity - an effect deemed impossible by most scientists.
Mistaken
A paper was prepared for the British Institute of Physics, but it was subsequently withdrawn leaving the world to wonder if they had mistaken some of their results.
Meanwhile, Chris Van Den Broeck of the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium thinks he has found the answer to faster-than-light flight, paving the way for the fabled warp drive from Star Trek's Enterprise.
His idea is to expand the space behind a starship and contract it in front of it. The starship would rest in a "warp bubble" between the two space-time distortions. The result would be a wave in space-time along which the starship would surf. As the starship lies in the bubble, time dilation effects would not occur.
Watch this space.
Source: Flight Daily News
