- "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. An incoming wormhole to the ship's Stargate will trigger the drive to temporarily shut down, enabling the gate to connect. This suggests that subspace communication is still possible while the drive is in use. The activation and deactivation of this device creates a subspace disruption that temporarily disrupts communication between the Tau'ri version of the Ancient long-range communication devices. (SGU: "Air, Part 1", "Earth") FTL can be disrupted by the presence of unexpected gravity wells, such as stars, making it necessary for the ship to leave the well before FTL can be reestablished. (SGU: "Faith")
Despite the precise speed of the drive being unknown, it is fast enough to cross the distance between galaxies in a relatively short amount of time, though still long enough to make rationing of supplies important. This would make it far faster than many of the hyperdrives encountered in both the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies, such as those of the Goa'uld and Wraith, but it is presumably still slower than newer Ancient and Asgard hyperdrives which can make intergalactic jumps in a few days or, in the case of Atlantis, mere hours. (SGU: "Sabotage", "Subversion")
The blue aliens appear to possess a similar technology, which is used on their motherships; however, the actual technology used is not made clear and so it may be a different form of propulsion technology.
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.
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