Seems like White should get a little more credit; he's going well outside established science, and accepting a much higher risk of failure than most are comfortable with. Seems like he's throwing ideas at the wall in the hopes that maybe something sticks. More of us should do that, or at least, support those of us willing to see if something did stick.
The tone of this paper seemed less like an academic assertion of an effect, and more like "hey, found something cool, someone should look into this, I gotta get back to what I was doing."
I'm also not going to blame the guy for being interested in space-age propulsion systems.
If he was doing what you're saying that would do him credit. But I see it more as indulging in wishful thinking and gaming the funding system by promising vaguely plausible nonsense and avoiding the tough questions that would come with seriously engaging with the physics community.
A lot of the writing falls woefully short of being a serious effort at science. It's more "wouldn't it be cool if" science fiction.
The entire "attempt" to link the EMDrive to Bohmian quantum mechanics is just a grand amalgamation of conceptual confusion.
The tone of this paper seemed less like an academic assertion of an effect, and more like "hey, found something cool, someone should look into this, I gotta get back to what I was doing."
I'm also not going to blame the guy for being interested in space-age propulsion systems.