VSTAR fires back at its critics

Essentially Wood is complaining that his personal and very public involvement in UFO research is being used to undermine the credibility of his business venture and that criticism of the proposed technology for his UAV is unfair because of the engineering team he has and the testing that has been carried out so far.

I agree that people's hobbies, however whacky, do not necessarily mean their occupation is bunk.

But I do have my own doubts about the technology claims for VSTAR and share Graham Warwick's concerns. Primarily about the recuperator, which is another term for heat exchanger. Graham is an aerospace engineer who worked in industry before turning to journalism and I worked with him on our technology coverage for four-years on Flight and like him, I am a journalist who was an engineer.

I think Graham was being restrained in his criticism of Wood's recuperator technology claims as we are both aware of the state of heat exchanger development in well funded government research.

So why on Earth did you print the story you may well ask?

I filed it along with lots of other copy and had asked for it to be held back while I did some checking on the claims made by Wood, namely the wind tunnel testing.   

To cut a long story short I spoke to Wood later in the conference and he said that the wind tunnel testing had been conducted at the Naval Research Laboratory in the Washington DC area. I subsequently contacted the NRL and despite follow-up calls have had no reply.

Wood also told me that he was negotiating a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement aka CRDA with NRL.

And he told me that the UAV project was a long term goal and that the Microfire, as its named, recuperator was the real focus for the company - and so in this respect I also completely agree with Graham that VSTAR is a packaging job.

Wood is using the fancy VSTAR vehicle to publicise the heat exchanger; which if it works is an impressive technological leap. Too impressive for me.

This view was shared by other journalists at the event and when we reporters were discussing the merits or demerits of the vehicle there was a discussion about whether Wood's company should be written about at all.

And this issue goes to the heart of journalism and the question, to what degree should the media stop information reaching the public? Who should be that gatekeeper?

In the age of the internet you could argue that such a question is irrelevant, everyone is a publisher. But journalists still wring their hands because they are concerned about the perception of their publication (and themselves).

Here at Flight we decided that giving the readers the information and letting them (you!) decide whether VSTAR was credible or not was the best course of action.  

After all, if whackiness levels were the stick with which publication credibility was measured some might argue that no one would ever have read about Boeing's Sonic Cruiser anywhere. But then no Boeing executive, as far as I know, has ever gone on record as being a UFO enthusiast.

Anyway, I hope to get those wind and water tunnel test images for you soon.