[peter noble]

From Sue Paxton's Battlestar Zone site:

What kind of hyperlight drive did the Colonials use? Any time we see the fleet it’s in normal space, traveling at below the speed of light, and for the Galactica or Pegasus to approach light speed is apparently quite an event (as well it should be - check into a physics phenomenon called the Lorentz Factor sometime). Are we to assume that the Colonials had no form of faster-than-light drive? The production team (amongst whom was no one with a scientific or even science fiction background—something else that shows) appears not to have realized that the Colonials would need some sort of “warp drive” elsewise they would have gotten nowhere very slowly, and so they never mentioned an FTL drive in the series. But there is in-series evidence about the Colonial form of FTL drive. In fact, it’s a form of FTL travel used by large numbers of science fiction writers today because it seems at least remotely possible. Cal Tech physicist Dr. Dan Alderson developed the idea for Jerry Pournelle. He theorized that there are lines of force between stars along which nearly instantaneous FTL transit is possible. A ship has to be in precisely the right point in space to enter one of these ‘flaws.’ The ship arrives at the warp point, switches on its FTL drive, and reappears in another star system. All other travel is slower-than-light. Warp points are near stars, which explains why the Colonial fleet is usually in or near a star system; they’re searching for the next warp point! Therefore the Colonials, like Pournelle, McCollum, Bujold, Weber et al use the Alderson Drive. For more thorough explanation of the Alderson Drive, read “Building the Mote in God’s Eye” by Larry Niven and Pournelle in Pournelle’s A Step Farther Out. This form of travel could be the basis for a number of very interesting stories, so fan writers take note.