1637 - René Descartes quantitatively derives the angles at which primary and secondary rainbows are seen with respect to the angle of the Sun's elevation,
1833 - Heinrich Lenz[?] states that an induced current in a closed conducting loop will appear in such a direction that it opposes the change that produced it (Lenz's law),
1845 - Michael Faraday discovers that light propagation in a material can be influenced by external magnetic fields,
... capable of it.
According to EADS, the maximum speed possible without reheat is Mach 1.5 (although this drops to Mach 1.2 with an air-to-air weapons load). ...