CONFIDENTIAL DETAILS

Throughout the 'published' details of the VLB engine, reference is made to information which is still being held secret. The reason for this is not that we wish to impede the development of, or personally capitalise on, the VLB engine design. It is because we know that unless there is a real opportunity for some company or entrepreneur to capitalise on it, the engine will never see the light of day.

We know of many designs which would be of enormous value to society that are never likely to be made available, simply because they cannot be protected by design right or patents. John Allen's rooftop wind converter, a design which would be of considerable value to the UK and extreme value to many poor countries, seems to have dropped into this category. He cannot even give it away. Then there is the £20 blood oximeter which he offered to the medical world. No profit in it you see, so if you have had a relative or friend die from post operative 'shock' after what was reported to have been a successful operation, you may well have first hand knowledge of what we mean.

John has long maintained that there should be some legal procedure whereby a company could introduce such things to society, without automatically suffering significant financial losses.

The VLB engine "secrets" are both patentable and essential to the full realisation of the engine, and would give any engine builder the protected competitive edge needed to justify the development investment. That they are 'novel' and 'not obvious to those skilled in the art' is very clear, because even with more conventional engines, they would offer enormous benefits. Ergo, if they were obvious, they would be around today. There are a number of people who confidently assured John that the "mighty" engine companies would very quickly figure out what he had done – but it is clear that they haven't, not yet, and its been more than ten years, so far.

We do know that there are people who would like to know the secrets of the VLB engine. For one thing, John's workshops were very professionally 'raided' - the engines and the PC which held his files being the only things taken. We also know that none of this would have revealed anything of any real value. But how did they know which engines to take? There were at least a dozen to choose from. In offices containing six PCs, how did they know which one to select? And how much did they spend on trying to decrypt John's files before they gave up? - And believe me, they did give up!

Anyone who can justify being given knowledge of the VLB engine secrets, and who is in a meaningful position to enter into a suitable term of confidentiality, will be given such. Otherwise, it is to remain secret - for the time being.