Probably specifically meant the purely theoretical (and devoid of any tangible engineering feat) paper

Not a space elevator or anything designed by the team in the article, I can assure you of that...

It's not like there can't be some research that's realistic and have tangible (even if remote) goals, like e.g. rocket research in the 20s and 30s, and some that's just theoretical filler -- and that we can never tell one from the other...