Movement and Maneuver in Deep Space
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Full title | Movement and Maneuver in Deep Space: A Framework to Leverage Advanced Propulsion |
|---|---|
| Series | Wright Flyer Paper No. 67, Air University Press |
| Authors | Majors Brian E. Hans, Christopher D. Jefferson and Joshua M. Wehrle, U.S. Air Force |
| Published | May 2019 (written as part of Air University's Space Horizons work; dated to 2017 in some accounts) |
| Length | About 64 pages |
| Subject | Capability requirements, possible solutions and strategic rationale for movement and manoeuvre advantage in deep space |
| Nature | A doctrine and policy study, not a report of working technology |
| 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 | 6 |
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.[1][4] Its authors are three U.S. Air Force majors: Brian E. Hans, Christopher D. Jefferson and Joshua M. Wehrle. The earlier version of this article says they wrote it for Air University's Space Horizons research group and dates the work to 2017.[1][2] It is a study of how the military might gain an advantage in deep space through new propulsion. Some UAP commentators have cited it because it discusses speculative concepts such as the Mach-effect thruster and the EmDrive.
The paper
According to its published abstract, the paper is an analytical study of deep-space operations that offers an approach for senior policy leaders. It lays out capability requirements, potential solutions and a strategic rationale for gaining a movement-and-manoeuvre advantage in deep space. It argues that such capabilities would bring broad benefits to national security.[1]
- Catalogue details. A university library catalogue lists it as a 2019 publication of about 64 pages, with the variant title "Framework to leverage advanced propulsion".[2]
- Contents. Its table of contents includes sections on in-space propulsion technology and "applied science readiness levels".[1]
- Access. The Air University and Defense Department copies of the PDF, and the library catalogue, blocked automated access when checked, so the full text could not be read for this article.[1][2][4]
According to the earlier version of this article, the paper discusses how emerging propulsion concepts might change military operations in space if they proved to work. These include speculative ones such as the Mach-effect thruster and the EmDrive. The paper notes that some of them remained controversial and unproven.[1]
The speculative concepts
The Mach-effect thruster
The Mach-effect thruster was proposed by the physicist James F. Woodward of California State University, Fullerton.[5]
- The hypothesis. Woodward's 1990 hypothesis, based on Mach's principle, holds that an object whose mass varies while it is shaken back and forth could feel a net push from "the inertial drag of the universe".
- The device. His thrusters used stacks of piezoelectric discs that he believed could exploit tiny transient mass fluctuations.
- Funding. In 2017 Woodward and Hal Fearn won NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts funding.
- Objections. Mainstream physicists consider the underlying model faulty, implying violations of energy and momentum conservation. No practical device has been demonstrated.[5]
Tajmar's group at Dresden also reported in 2021 that it could not verify the Mach-effect thruster's claimed performance.[6] The earlier version of this article added that related piezoelectric experiments, some involving a Lockheed engineer, had been carried out openly about twenty years earlier. Conference papers on transient-mass experiments did appear in 1999 and 2006.[5]
The EmDrive
The EmDrive is a closed microwave cavity, first proposed by Roger Shawyer in 2001, that its inventor claimed produced thrust without propellant.[3]
- Physics. Such a reactionless drive would violate conservation of momentum, and physicists and engineers generally regard the concept as pseudoscience.
- NASA's result. In 2016 Harold White's Eagleworks group at NASA reported a small apparent thrust. Later studies attributed it to thermal effects.
- Dresden. Martin Tajmar's group at the Dresden University of Technology reproduced and then eliminated the apparent thrust. In three papers in 2021 it concluded that all published positive results were false positives: "Our measurements refute all EmDrive claims by at least 3 orders of magnitude."[3][6]
Significance
The paper is a doctrine study by mid-career officers, not a report of working technology or an official Air Force position.[1] UFO researchers cite it as evidence that Air Force thinkers were considering speculative propulsion at the time the UAP subject returned to public attention. The two exotic concepts it reportedly discusses have since failed independent tests.[3][6]
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 →
Further reading
- Skunk Works — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
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
- James Woodward (physicist) — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- "Scientists pinpoint source of 'impossible' EmDrive's thrust", New Atlas (2021) · newatlas.com
Facts in this article are drawn in part from the Wikipedia articles “RF resonant cavity thruster”, “James Woodward (physicist)”, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
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.
No discussion yet.