Part of what made the book at least somewhat compelling at the time was Cook's reliance on his interactions with former or then-current aerospace industry figures.

I decided to go back and take a cursory look at those parts of the book, and it's almost shocking given ten years hindsight.

For example, here's one excerpt from the book where Cook writes about interviewing Boyd Bushman[0] at a Lockheed Martin facility:

That I had learned nothing of value must have shown on my face, for without warning, Bushman leaned forward and put his hand on my shoulder.
He asked me what was wrong and I told him.
"It's a lonely walk, but a rewarding one," he said, so quietly that I almost missed it. I looked into his eyes, which were quite blue but for that superficial milkiness that sometimes denotes the onset of old age.
He smiled at me. "Keep traveling the road and you might just find what you're looking for."
"What do you mean?" I asked cautiously.
"In all my years with this company, no one has asked me the questions you came here with today." He paused a moment, then said: "Here, I want to show you something."

What Bushman later showed Cook was videos of Hutchison's experiments. The reason this is notable is because at the time that was written, Bushman hadn't yet completely and obviously appeared to have gone off the rails (as a quick Google confirms).

Another excerpt, this time of Cook relating sentiment from a personal interaction with a far more prominent aerospace industry veteran:

Ben Rich and I had sparred on a number of occasions on the stealth question—most recently at an air show where he'd turned up, desperately ill with cancer, to promote his book. I'd respected him utterly and liked him hugely, sensing in his presence the grit and wisdom of a generation of postwar aviation pioneers that wouldn't be around us for much longer.
It was Rich who'd once told me of a place—a virtual warehouse—where ideas that were too dangerous to transpose into hardware were locked away forever, like the Ark of the Covenant in the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It had almost happened to stealth.

Rich was a former director[1] of Lockheed Skunkworks, and has had many quotes of a similar nature[2] attributed to him (rightly or wrongly).

There's a few more notable excerpts, but they're not worth adding additional weight to this post. There's a copy of the book up on books.google.com that's easy to find, but I didn't cite it since I'm unsure how legitimate it is (I own a hard copy anyways).

My opinion is that neither Bushman nor Rich went off the deep end at all, nor made any truthful near-death confessions. It's far more likely they just had a field day screwing with people in that manner for fun and pleasure. While it could be argued doing so may have had some psyops utility, it was likely miniscule enough not to be their primary motivator.

While normally I'd applaud such behavior, it's kind of sad when it leads to someone as respected as Cook burning their credibility. If there's a moral to this story, I think it's this: never believe a single word black project aerospace engineers say, especially if you're an aviation journalist.

>... but it's in fact Hutchison without an n, not Hutchinson.)

Good catch, completely missed that.

[0] https://www.google.com/search?q=boyd+bushman

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rich

[2] http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5048.0