Movement and Maneuver in Deep Space
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | April 2017 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Propulsion & physics (topic) |
| People | Martin Tajmar |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 187 |
| Year | 2017 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2017 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 4 |
Movement and Maneuver in Deep Space: A Framework to Leverage Advanced Propulsion is Wright Flyer Paper No. 67, published by Air University Press in May 2019. Its authors are three U.S. Air Force majors, Brian E. Hans, Christopher D. Jefferson and Joshua M. Wehrle, writing for Air University's Space Horizons research group. The testimony dates the work to 2017.[1][2]
The paper

The 64-page paper sets out capability requirements, possible solutions and a strategic rationale for gaining an advantage in movement and manoeuvre in deep space, arguing that such capabilities would bring wide benefits to national security. According to the testimony, it discusses how emerging propulsion concepts — including speculative ones such as the Mach-effect thruster and the EmDrive — might change military operations in space if they proved to work, while noting that some remained controversial and unproven.[1][2]
Speculative propulsion

The Mach-effect thruster, proposed by physicist James Woodward, uses piezoelectric stacks to produce claimed transient mass fluctuations; the testimony points out that related piezoelectric experiments, some involving a Lockheed engineer, had been done at the unclassified level about twenty years earlier. The EmDrive, a closed microwave cavity claimed to produce thrust without propellant, was tested by Martin Tajmar's group at the Technical University of Dresden, which concluded in 2021 that apparent thrust readings were caused by experimental errors.[3]
Significance
The paper is a doctrine study, not a report of working technology. UFO researchers cite it as evidence that the Air Force was taking speculative propulsion seriously at the time the UAP subject returned to public attention.[1][3]
People and topics

- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- Mach effect — James Woodward's proposed propellant-free thrust effect.
- Mach effect experiments — Mach effect experiments
- Lockheed Martin — The aerospace company whose Skunk Works built the U-2, SR-71 and F-117.
- Martin Tajmar — Physicist who tested claimed exotic propulsion devices.
On the Timeline
- Aircraft as pilot prosthetic (Forgotten Languages) (27 March 2017) — An anonymous website publishes an article about making aircraft an extension of the pilot.
- Navy underwater-object program claim (2017) (19 September 2017) — An astronomer with Navy contracts claims the Navy runs a secret underwater-object project.
See every 2017 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Brian E. Hans, Christopher D. Jefferson and Joshua M. Wehrle, *Movement and Maneuver in Deep Space* (Wright Flyer Paper 67, 2019), Air University Press (PDF) · airuniversity.af.edu · archived copy
- Catalogue record, Michigan State University Libraries · catalog.lib.msu.edu · archived copy
- RF resonant cavity thruster — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- media.defense.gov · media.defense.gov · 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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