Accordingly, the electrons comprising this electric "Field envelope" current are accelerated to very nearly the speed of light, and because of the hull's radial symmetry the Field envelope is split into two hemitoroidal electron current streams (as shown above) which are mutually opposed as they strike the positive central collector sections of the hull. As is mathematically verified in the Patent, with sufficient current density, the relativistic mass of these two currents can provide impulse thrust of nearly 2 'gee' simply from a controlled variable imbalance in the continuous force of their impact with the Collectors! [The proper basic Field impulse thrust calculation method given in the Patent is now shown below!] 

     And this type of field effect propulsion is the now-defunct NASA Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program's very definition of a 'diametric drive', which functions by "creating an asymmetric field of force around itself without expelling reaction mass" and whose top speed would be limited only by relativity. Wikipedia has this to say: "It is unknown whether it is even physically possible to create such a field." But, as you will see, with the EDF Generator's advanced propulsion engineering it now surely is . . . 

    To explain:  if  these two Field envelope hemicurrents were evenly isometric (of equal magnitude), no net force of thrust would be developed. However, if the "lower" current stream is much stronger than the "upper", the StarDrive vessel will be propelled away from the stronger current – in the "upward" direction. There is no net 'backward' ionic exhaust produced, since no use is made of the old rocket principle: the Field current electrons are not "fired like bullets from a gun" (as even some physicists seem inclined to think) but are relativistically self-accelerating to the Collectors, and any net "recoil" force on the Emitter Ring is trivially Newtonian by comparison. Therefore, this type of thrust is truly reactionless in nature. [The Collectors are sectored for directional control, achieved by varying the proportional current conducted by various sectors.]

    Since the electric acceleration attained by Field current electrons is purely a function of the applied Field voltage, and must remain subjectively constant (with constant Field voltage) despite any increase in the velocity of the vessel itself, the Field current electrons will themselves be compelled to provide sufficient work/energy output such that their collector impact velocity remains constant – whereby the net impulse thrust produced will rise 'in phase' with vessel momentum, increasing asymptotically with speed according to the FitzGerald ratio reciprocal and yielding a constant level of vessel acceleration** despite the relativistic rise in the vessel-and-Field's apparent mass. [ref.: see the Electron Work Theory section of our Power Plant page.] 

 ** The stunningly simple reason why this can be so is compound time dilation:  Not only are a StarDrive vessel's Field envelope electrons moving with the ship at nearly c, but they are moving at nearly c with respect to the ship! So, if we logically accept that all electrons even at absolute-zero rest are intaking and expending EM energy, their relativistically expanded capability to do so as a function of near-light velocity is compounded under intense electric Field acceleration around such a starship which is itself moving at extreme near-light speed (with respect to its rest inertial reference frame) . . .
   Roughly speaking, if a stationary StarDrive vessel's fully-powered Field is accelerating its constituent electrons to 'six-9s light' (0.999999 c), their "gamma" (time dilation) factor is just over 700 and they are absorbing EM energy at least 700 times faster relative to our reference frame than they do at rest. And so it's easy to see that the Field electrons' gamma may itself become essentially squared if the vessel then also moves to six-9s light velocity, with a correspondingly enormous EM energy exchange rate! 

    Thus, an EDF Generator vessel's Field envelope would theoretically be capable of propelling the ship faster-than-light "locally" – from the subjective point of view of any onboard instrumentation or crew – by asymptotically approaching the speed of light to within an arbitrarily small increment at such point that relativistic conditions arise allowing the formation of a local Kerr metric space warp [pdf; 1 pg., 50kB].

    Once the Field becomes a conductor, and the resulting "drive" current acts to redistribute local hull surface charge densities, its electric field intensity must become uniform (by definition of a conductor) because the equal-area hull sections cause it to have a uniform cross-sectional area in the direction of current conduction. An analysis of this UFI Formula as applied here clearly shows that the electric field intensity within the flow of Field envelope current will remain constant throughout the range of concentric semicircular d values across the hull's neutral sections, for any given value of Field voltage – by virtue of proportionally-variable local values for the collector and emitter ring surface charge densities.

   Since the field intensity and Field drive current density across a StarDrive vessel's hull have now been shown to be uniform (as is the voltage), the acceleration of all Field current electrons is uniform as well – and the resulting simplified "average transit time" thrust calculations below should be quite accurate for purposes here. The vessel data we will need is: the peak Field voltage (110% of 35.1047 million vdc [see Worksheet II(a), StarDrive Engineering]); rotor ampacity (38,160 A); and [est'd.] weight (198.8 lbs).