Re:For anybody who actually designs airplanes ... (Score 1)

Good insights. Let me offer a brief reply as CEO of Frontline Aerospace, Inc. To begin with, I am a Cal Poly-trained engineer with extensive background in technology start-ups. (For all you other engineering grads from other schools, I tip my hat, and hope you will repay the courtesy.) My interests have, in fact, crossed domains -- some in professional circles where I am grateful for modest success and some in areas where anyone with an inquiring and honest mind can travel. Please find below my reply to a blog article elsewhere, but which I believe gives an honest reply to critics. Critics have their right. Although it is far easier to criticize than to create. Frontline Aerospace, Inc., is a real company with serious designs -- for both the UAV and our patented gas turbine recuperator which is possibly of even greater interest, though it receives less press: Blog reply: "Thank you for your mention of Frontline Aerospace and our patented V-STAR (tm) unmanned aerial vehicle and patented MicroFire (tm) gas turbine recuperator that were just announced in San Diego at the Association of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles International (AUVSI). As noted at our press conference, V-STAR (tm) is in first-stage design, having completed water tunnel and now in the midst of wind tunnel testing. As you will note at our new website at www.FrontlineAerospace.com, V-STAR (tm) can be scaled for Multi-Role Endurance missions, but our design innovated by a retired Boeing Technical Fellow has focused its "baseline" mission on a military-defined combat resupply objective that nobody else has met. As our Advisory Board members stated at our announcement -- with credentials including decades in the aerospace industry, military special operations and planning with the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- the V-STAR (tm) UAV brings genuine innovation to meet real missions. Frontline Aerospace, Inc., is indeed a privately-held start-up and not yet the likes of Lockheed and others, but the aviation industry is filled with examples where designs from major firms have not worked, and innovation from new companies has blazed a successful trail (even without permission). ... the tenor of a few people's comments may perhaps have been prompted by a single blog, albeit from Graham Warwick at Aviation Week. Graham is a respected editor, and we understand the influences on his post. Numbers of other respected aviation sources online -- most, in fact -- have treated our announcement without irony or "blogger wit." It is frank to observe that the very first question to me in our press conference had nothing to do with V-STAR (tm) itself (which, as you note, Graham believes has some merit) -- but was from a colleague of the late Philip Klass, who was best known for his ridicule of the UFO topic. I replied then quite frankly -- and I note here as well -- that this is a topic that I have, indeed, taken seriously. Many reasonable and respected people do. So have numerous aerospace scientists, military generals, law enforcement officers, and others that I know. But this has nothing whatever to do with V-STAR (tm) and MicroFire (tm) technologies, which stem from scientists and engineers at work with Frontline Aerospace. As one of the earliest staff at INTEL Corporation, in the days when Andy Grove could address the staff by standing up and talking over the cubicle walls, my investment in Frontline Aerospace will speak for itself and contribute to our nation's security needs. The evidence has been our direct discussions from U.S. and international customers who have seen our designs. I venture that neither Stavatti nor bloggers have brought a single aircraft to the wind tunnel. We have, and Frontline Aerospace has more to come. Thank you for your interest." Respectfully, Ryan S. Wood CEO, Frontline Aerospace, Inc.