In his memoirs, Moseley contended that, when pressed, most leading ufologists would admit that Klass knew the subject and the people involved and was welcomed, or at least pleasantly tolerated, at UFO meetings.

[6] However, Moseley also wrote that he and Klass "have had and continue to have intense doctrinal and factual disagreements, and there are things about Phil's 'style', like his attack on James E. McDonald, that I do not admire or agree with.

[10] As a Boy Scout he won a ride in an autogyro (an early helicopter) at the Iowa State Fair, and his younger sister, Rosanne Klass, also recalled that he spent a lot of time building crystal radios.

And before his UFO activities became a full-time avocation in the 1960s, as a Civil War buff his electrical engineering training was put to use in designing and building animated electronic battle displays, some of which are on exhibit at the Gettysburg and Antietam battlefields.

Always striving to stay on the cutting edge, Klass published an "Exclusive Report on Counter Measures" in the November 18 and 25, 1957, editions of Aviation Week.

An investigation into the disclosure was dropped when the US Air Force told the FBI that the disclosed information could not be declassified for purposes of prosecution.

Other publications have sporadically covered this area of government activity, but the most prolific writer on the subject has been AVIATION WEEK's Philip J. Klass.

He did a thorough job in summarizing his knowledge of the United States reconnaissance program in a book titled ''Secret Sentries in Space''.

[9][17] Retiring in 1986 as senior avionics editor of Aviation Week & Space Technology, he continued to contribute to the magazine for several more years.

[20] Since that time, theories evoking similar phenomena with widely differing modes of generation have been proposed by commentators such as Michael Persinger, Terence Meaden, Albert Budden,[22] and Paul Devereux.

[23] In 1999 the MoD Project Condign report proposed that "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (UAPs) comparable to the plasmas originally advocated by Klass (but as amended by Devereux and Randles) may represent a viable explanation for some UFO events.

As he continued investigating more and more sightings, Klass realized that his plasma hypothesis could account for only a small subset of UFO reports.

When he learned of Friedman's plans to move to Canada in 1980, Klass wrote a letter to A.G. McNamara with the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics at the National Research Council in Ottawa.

Ten days later a memo was sent within the NRC management which said, "I don't know what we can do to prepare for the arrival in Canada of this man Friedman, but if he acts as Klass predicts we can ill afford the publicity he will generate for us."

Klass's single letter apparently prompted a major records relocation in Canada and subsequently made Friedman's research easier than it otherwise might have been.

In the same paper Friedman also told a different version of the events leading to the Canadian UFO records being moved to the public archives.

[30] Author Michael Sokolove wrote in his article "The Debunkers": "Klass was the voice of cool reason, seeking to demonstrate that a temporary inability to fill in the whole story should not open the door to wild speculation.

His real argument, like all debunkers', was not with the people who believed that they had witnessed or experienced some paranormal event but with those who made an industry of igniting their imaginations.

In February 1975 he called the editor of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin and "in strong terms laced with sarcasm he derided our publication of the article by J. Allen Hynek, 'The UFO Mystery'".

The editor also defended Hynek as a "widely respected scientist... affiliated with a leading university", to which Klass replied, "He won't be for long!"

[32] In Gary P. Posner's 1999 interview, Klass explained his views on UFOs: "As I turn 80, my fondest hope is that a genuine ET craft will land on our back patio and that I will be abducted.

Hopefully, with the ETs' advanced technology and knowledge, they will be able to cure my spinal and walking problems and the damage to my vocal cord.

Of course, I would have to pay Stanton Friedman $10,000—based on my long-standing wager that UFOs will never be proven real—but I would expect to become wealthy from the royalties of a new book titled Why Me, ET?

And instead of spending many hours each week 'debunking' UFOs, I'll finally have time to watch some TV, go to the movies, and perhaps get to read a few non-UFO books for enjoyment.

The offer was specifically declined by Frank Edwards, John G. Fuller, J. Allen Hynek, and James Harder, some of whom were the most vocal promoters of the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

The winner might be a scientist, pilot, engineer, technology specialist, business or industry leader—someone whose accomplishments will be the products of a long and varied career of service, creativity, and vision, and who has achieved widespread professional recognition and respect.