Faster-than-Light Travel from Dark Energy Inflation

The mass-energy content of the present-day universe is dominated by an exotic component known as dark energy. In its earliest stages, a similar dominant component drove the exponential growth of cosmological inflation. This note explores how a sufficiently advanced civilisation might manipulate dark energy for faster-that-light travel. An exact solution of the Einstein gravitational field equations that experiences highly anisotropic inflation serves as a toy model to illustrate the principles. A sample calculation exhibits highly superluminal motion while imposing negligible stress on a spacecraft hull. Keywords: Faster-than-light Spaceflight, Relativistic Interstellar Spaceflight