I am in the research phase of an epic science-alternative-fact novel that I plan to change history or at least really make people think, but my bullshit is a little dry as of now
A parallel human civilization separated from us by deus ex machina is appreciably ahead of us technologically by not making some mistakes that have sent us into a scientific dark age
They understand the true nature of gravity, that it wasn't some cockamamey concept like the curvature of spacetime, but something as trivial as a specific electromagnetic charge that can be manipulated at will
They have developed a technique for making nuclear fusion more efficient by building a faraday cage around the reactor and using EM phase cancellation to negate all the bothersome forces inside the closed field
They have also used a similar concept for an antigravity flying machine where a generated magnetic field will bring the atmospheric forces acting on the craft to an equilibrium that can be broken with its own ion engines for flight as if in space
Though I have no idea if any of these systems would work, even with the assumptions made
For instance, wouldn't the bubble around the flyer cancel out the ion engines just as easily as it would the planet's gravity? What if the bubble was intermittent, releasing to allow the thrusters to change direction and reactivating allowing the craft to ride on inertia? Inertia being a property of matter and not a force in itself shouldn't be affected, right?
Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I obviously don't. Is there any prominent research along these lines that can school me on what I'm missing?