Mach's principle and local Lorentz-invariance together yield the prediction
of transient rest mass fluctuations in accelerated objects. These restmass
fluctuations, in both principle and practice, can be quite large and, in
principle at least, negative. They suggest that exotic space time
transport devices may be feasible, the least exotic being "impulse
engines", devices that can produce accelerations without ejecting any
material exhaust. Such "impulse engines" rely on inducing transient mass
fluctuations in conventional electrical circuit components and combining
them with a mechanically coupled pulsed thrust to produce propulsive
forces without the ejection of any propellant. The invention comprises a
method of producing propellant-less thrust by using force transducers
(piezoelectric devices or their magnetic equivalents) attached to resonant
mechanical structures. The force transducers are driven by two
phase-locked voltage waveforms so that the transient mass fluctuation and
mechanical excursion needed to produce a stationary thrust are both
produced in the transducer itself.