Faster-Than-Light engine

"Faster-than-light, yet not through hyperspace"

- Nicholas Rush

The Faster-Than-Light engine, or FTL engine, is a technology used on the Ancient ship Destiny. It is capable of faster-than-light travel without entering hyperspace. While in flight, energy trails from the hull with an effect similar to St. Elmo's fire. FTL has also become a Tau'ri expression for an engine capable of travel at speeds greater than that of light, whether it is through use of hyperspace or not.

Overview
The technology behind the Faster-Than-Light engine has not been explained in detail, but it works much differently to a hyperdrive. When engaged, the ship is quickly accelerated beyond the speed of light, in contrast to hyperdrive which opens a window into hyperspace. The drive's top speed has also not been made clear, though it has been shown to traverse one million light-years in the void between two galaxies within a few months, which would make it far superior to most interstellar hyperdrives.

The ship's ability to survive FTL travel is directly dependent on its shield. Without the shield's protection, anything nearby will be instantly vaporized by the sudden energy burst. Destiny itself would also be destroyed if its shield failed mid-flight, and it has safeguards that prevent the drive from being engaged if the shields are too weak to survive the jump. The shield will expand to cover objects that are latched securely onto the hull.

FTL is apparently much more sensitive to phenomena in normal space than hyperdrive is. Destiny was brought out of FTL by the gravity well of an uncharted star and could not re-establish FTL flight until it passed beyond the star's range.

An incoming wormhole to Destiny's Stargate will trigger the drive to temporarily shut down, enabling the gate to connect, but this only applies to the nine-chevron address used from the Milky Way galaxy. The ordinary seven-chevron address cannot connect to Destiny unless it is idle. This suggests that subspace communication is possible while the drive is in use. The activation and deactivation of this device creates a subspace disruption that temporarily interrupts communication between the Tau'ri version of the Ancient long-range communication devices.

The blueberry aliens appear to possess a similar technology, which is used in their motherships; however, the actual technology used is not made clear and so it may be another form of propulsion technology.