Mach effect experiments
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | June 2001 |
|---|---|
| People | James Woodward |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 145 |
| Year | 2001 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2001 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 7 |
Physicist James F. Woodward (1941–2025) of California State University, Fullerton, proposed in 1990 a hypothesis, based on Mach's principle, that an object accelerated while its internal energy is changing might undergo slight fluctuations in mass that could in principle produce thrust without propellant. He and colleagues spent decades trying to demonstrate the "Mach effect" in the laboratory.[1]
The theory
Woodward's hypothesis predicts forces he called Mach effects, also known as the Woodward effect. Mainstream physicists note that the underlying model appears to violate conservation of energy and momentum. Woodward and Tom Mahood patented a device based on the idea, and other physicists proposed experiments to test such transient mass fluctuations.[2][3]
Experiments
From the 1990s Woodward and associates reported small thrust signals from devices using stacks of piezoelectric crystals. Tom Mahood wrote a master's thesis on transient Mach effects in 1999, and Lockheed engineer Paul March reported verification efforts in 2006; Woodward presented the work at conferences of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, including in 2001. A 2010 torsion-pendulum study by other researchers failed to corroborate the claims.[1][4]
NASA funding
In 2017 Woodward and physicist Heidi Fearn obtained funding from NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program, which they used to develop thrusters and an interstellar probe concept. Woodward described his work in the 2012 book Making Starships and Stargates.[1]
Assessment
No practical working device has been publicly demonstrated. In 2021 a team at the Dresden University of Technology led by Martin Tajmar concluded that the apparent thrust of a Mach-effect thruster was a vibration artefact. The work continues in a small community of researchers. Woodward died on 9 August 2025.[1][5]
People and topics
- James Woodward — Physicist who proposed the Mach effect thruster.
- Mach effect — James Woodward's proposed propellant-free thrust effect.
- Lockheed Martin — The aerospace company whose Skunk Works built the U-2, SR-71 and F-117.
- NASA — The U.S. civilian space agency, created in 1958.
On the Timeline
- Mark McCandlish and the Alien Reproduction Vehicle (9 May 2001) — Illustrator Mark McCandlish says gravity propulsion was reverse-engineered from recovered craft.
- NIDS black triangle study (3 November 2001) — Over 150 black triangle sightings are tallied at a NIDS meeting.
See every 2001 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- James F. Woodward — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Viorel Drafta, "Proposal for experimental verifying of Machian transient mass fluctuations" (2001), arXiv · arxiv.org · archived copy
- US Patent 6,347,766, Google Patents · patents.google.com · archived copy
- Tom Mahood, master's thesis on transient Machian effects (PDF) · otherhand.org · archived copy
- "In a comprehensive new test, the EmDrive fails to generate any thrust", Phys.org (Apr 2021) · phys.org · archived copy
- James Woodward (physicist) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- arc.aiaa.org · arc.aiaa.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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