Over the years I've seen quite a bit of this kind of thing. In my
experience, it's not the brain child of a "mad scientist" at all, but a
clever entrepreneur. He makes the idea sound plausible enough to get
technically naive investors (which can easily include the government) to
chip in, makes himself president and CEO of a company, and lives the
good life as long as he can before the investors finally realize there
won't be buckets of money at the end of the road and pull the plug.
Although not required, quite a few of the ones I've known have a Ph.D.,
which impresses the investors. Some leave a trail of crashed companies
behind them but manage to do it over and over, conning a new set of
marks each time.

It doesn't take a very careful look at some of the "miracle" antenna
proponents to identify a number of these operations at work right now.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL

Ian White, G3SEK wrote:

Nah, just practical and realistic.

This is just another "mad scientist" project. Technologically
feasible... well, just maybe... but totally devoid of common sense.

The amazing thing is how easily such projects find powerful backers at
corporate and even governmental level [insert cross-references to the
Dotcom Boom and BPL here].