Moller M400 Skycar

[Mossie]

Kind of compliments the 'Future in the 50's' post, a modern design for a flying car.  Uses 4 pairs of wankel (am I allowed to say that? ) engines driving four fans in pairs.  They call it a 'Vollantor'.

You can download the videos from the Moller site:
http://www.moller.com/skycar/

I had a little trouble with those though, you can view them here too:
http://www.firebox.com/?dir=firebox&action...ff=1108&pid=415

Moller are taking deposits on Skycars, $995,000 each if you want a block order of 25!  Firebox have them listed at £324,000!

I'll have two......, mind you, as Rat mentioned in the last thread, why would you want the idiots that are on the roads buzzing around in the air???    :dum:  

At least the coppers can take chase:





Simon

[rallymodeller]

While Moller's ideas are pretty cool, he seems to be the aviation equivalent of a Perpetual Motion Machine freak. The same designs have been floating around for some 15 years now and we still have no flying prototype. I have to admit I'm getting pretty skeptical about the whole thing. With the amount of money he's poured into the project we should at least have seen a CTOL prototype.

Thanks, I'll save my dollars.

[Mossie]

I know what you mean Rally, how he's managing to keep his investors in tow I'll never guess.  It has flown, if only in a limited hover (see the videos).  I'll be very surprised if the machine actually goes into production, but very happy!

One thing I'll say about Moller is that he's convinced that he can do it & has been knocking together designs for a good while.  He might be deluded, but the wool isn't pulled over financiers eyes so easily (although it wouldn't be the first time), so I'm wondering if they've kept him going so long, maybe he's onto something?

Looking at the news section it seems like they are going on with the project, building a test lake & facilities, it may just be a matter of time & limited cash.  Won't hold my breath too hard though, we've seen it all before, but a small lungfull won't hurt!

Simon.

[Alvis 3.1]

I, for one, never want to see the "airplane in every garage" concept come to fruition, unless it is totally computer controlled. The average numpty (Thanks Wooks, LOVE the word!) can't deal with TWO dimensional travel, and adding in a third? God, the carnage would be unbelievable!

And THAT said, my faith in pooters is not a lot higher, as I've seen far too much crapular software and mechanical systems to believe it would ever be reliable enough to control fleets of airborne cars. Windows 2055? Thanks, no.


Alvis 3.1

[Mossie]

The more I think about this, the less I like the idea.  I'd love to just pootle down to my mates in my flying car, being there in a few minutes cos I don't have to worry about traffic lights.

But what about other traffic?  Surely you need some kind of 'roads'?  What if everyone wants to go somewhere at the same time?  I guess once there's enough of them, your going to have similar troubles to traffic now.

Then, of course, there's the idiots.  When I was younger, some fool came flying down the hill far to fast, sweverd to miss an oncoming car and flew over the pavement into the next door neightbours wall.  Luckily, it's an old, substantial wall & the car came of worse, but had he been 20 yards further back he'd have been through the front of our house instead.  Not to mention had been at 3.30pm, when 100's of kids walk by after school.

If these idiots are flying, of course they can land on TOP of you.  Dosen't bare thinking about if it's the local school that happens to be under them.

May be we should go back to riding bikes, saying, I was hurt quite badly by one of them once!

Simon.

[Sisko]

I, for one, never want to see the "airplane in every garage" concept come to fruition, unless it is totally computer controlled. The average numpty (Thanks Wooks, LOVE the word!) can't deal with TWO dimensional travel, and adding in a third? God, the carnage would be unbelievable!

And THAT said, my faith in pooters is not a lot higher, as I've seen far too much crapular software and mechanical systems to believe it would ever be reliable enough to control fleets of airborne cars. Windows 2055? Thanks, no.


Alvis 3.1

You took the words right out of my mouth.