The Light Barrier

Sometime in the next 100 years, aeronautical engineers will face the challenge of the light barrier in much the same way they did the sound barrier in the 50s.

To get there, it seems likely, engineers will have to make hands on trials and demonstrate errors in cosmological conjecture. Much of the conjecture today resembles the imbedded philosophical beliefs of the past, steeped in personality and mathematical certainty. It is just when we are the most certain, history demonstrates that we know the least. Newtonian physics and the nature of matter are good examples. The particle nature of gravity and the reconciliation of quantum mechanics with relativity may be next, but after that comes dimensions and the immutable speed of light.

A German Physicist, Burkhard Heim (1925-2001) proposed not only a unified theory but a scheme for penetrating hyperspace. His was an interesting story, leading to the kind of obscurity that history seems to favor. Heim’s association with Lorentz, Heisenberg and the Plank Institute lend credibility to his unified theory, as did the unique agreement of his equations to experimental particle behavior. His work was not published in English, nor was it properly peer reviewed. The lost works of Heim bubble to the surface in 2005 in the prize winning paper presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in the category of nuclear and future flight.

Crossing the light barrier will be the most exciting single challenge for aviation engineers in years to come.

http://www.hpcc-space.de/publications/documents/JHSarod2005.pdf
http://hughesair.blogspot.com/2006/01/gravity.html