An AIAA Dilemma

Our article New Theory of Flight submitted to AIAA Journal poses in intriguing dilemma for AIAA as a world leading guarantee of the Old Theory of Flight: Accept or Reject?

Let us as a start to a second round, after a first round of rejection based on reports by reviewers which do not show competence, analyze the present situation:

1. Accepting the article would mean that AIAA views the New Theory to be more correct than the Old Theory advocated by AIAA, and thus would require a reorientation of AIAA. This would be difficult for the inner circle of AIAA and aerodynamics to accept, since our group is an outsider.

2. Rejecting the article on loose grounds as of now, may not be clever if it turns out that after all the New Theory is better than the Old Theory.

3. Opening to a scientific discussion, as now editor Blaisdell seems to be willing to do, is dangerous for AIAA since the referee reports are filled with misconceptions and misrepresentation which can solidly be rebutted.

Recall An American Dilemma by Swedish Nobel-laureate economist Gunnar Myrdal about civil rights for Afro-Americans, where the only possible outcome was to accept. But the route there was long and rocky.

So will AIAA now accept or reject? Today rejection would seem to be the only possibility, independent of the strength of our article and the weakness of the referee reports. But rejection is not possible in a longer perspective because our scientific evidence is mathematical and in an open scientific discussion this is as unstoppable as a principle of democracy in an open society.