The future is now: Introducing the environmentally friendly Sky Car!

[ecstatic]

The Skycar

Moller International has developed the first and only feasible, personally affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle the world has ever seen.

...

Can any automobile give you this scenario? From your garage to your destination, the M400 Skycar can cruise comfortably at 275 MPH (maximum speed of 375 MPH) and achieve up to 20 miles per gallon on clean burning, ethanol fuel. No traffic, no red lights, no speeding tickets. Just quiet direct transportation from point A to point B in a fraction of the time. Three dimensional mobility in place of two dimensional immobility.

No matter how you look at it the automobile is only an interim step on our evolutionary path to independence from gravity. That's all it will ever be.

...

http://www.moller.com/skyc.htm

[KansDem]

1. I want one!!!

Does it come with a luggage rack?

[Donnachaidh]

2. oh great -- now I can be tailgated in the sky

And how many people will be killed due to someone's punk assed kid text-messaging at 275 miles an hour? :sarcasm:

[ecstatic]

3. LOL Sad but true... I doubt this will be legal

anytime soon.

[DCKit]

15. The design has been in process for about fifteen years

Only now are they developing smaller, more powerful motors.

I'm still not holding my breath.

[Tesha]

16. It's not.

> I doubt this will be legal anytime soon.

It's not.

There actually is a speed limit in the sky, and if I remember
correctly, it's 200 Knots (Nautical miles per hour) at or
below 10,000 feet of altitude.

So claims of "275 MPH" are bogus.

Furthermore, it takes energy to rise up (curiously, at least
as much as it takes a car to climb an equivalent-height hill)
so don't expect fuel economy out of "flying cars".

This is just more BS to keep us thinking that the age of
the personal transportation vehicle (i.e., the car) hasn't
passed.

Tesha

[dysfunctional press]

6. that is seriously WHY these things will NEVER be used in mass numbers, if at all...

most people have enough trouble trying to navigate two-dimensionally...add a third, and it's going to cause a LOT of problems. and accidents in the sky will ultimately effect those on the ground, too.

[Vilis Veritas]

9. I think he understands that and is now...

trying to get support from other avenues. He has a video about Rescue operations...

http://www.moller.com/medi.htm

Peace

[dysfunctional press]

10. the cartoon about a rescue from a burning building doesn't make much sense-

it's the upper floors that are burning- and the skycar is used to 'save' someone from several floors below the fire...and wouldn't there be lots of air turbulence to deal with around a burning building?
i guess that explains why they only have a cartoon version.

[Vilis Veritas]

20. You are correct.

If you watch the hover test you can see how unstable the craft is, even with all his sophisticated computers to keep it steady. The scenario he put forth in Rescue was just absurd at this point. I am not even sure he can make it move forward. While the craft can kind of hover, the transition from hover to forward motion may be difficult to achieve, hence no video of that transition. There seems to be quite a few problems still to be overcome.

I first read about Moller a very long time ago...when I read about it in Popular Mechanics back in the 70's (first appearance was supposedly as early as 1962)...it was just cartoons and Moller was asking people for money...he obviously got some money...

To be fair...the guy has done remarkable things with no formal education in design of these things and he is obviously a genius to have taken it this far with NO HELP. He even makes his own motors. I am sure that lots of people want to see his technology work.

His almond butter is excellant by the way. Best I have ever had.

Peace.

[spindoctor]

4. funny n/t

[I_Will]

5. "Personally affordable" ??

quote:
Your required deposit amount is as follows:

Delivery Position /min. deposit amount /List Price
25 - 100 /$100,000 /$995,000
101 - 200 /$25,000 /$750,000
201 - 500 /$10,000 /500,000

[dysfunctional press]

7. if this were a realistic and effective technology- wouldn't the military be using it first?

:shrug:

[Vilis Veritas]

8. He also makes great Organic Almond Butter...

http://www.quailoaksranch.com/index.htm

It is really awesome...they grind each order after payment.

Peace...

[Javaman]

11. "environmentally friendly"?

it uses no fossil fuels during it's manufacture? or wait, let me guess, the company bought some of those worthless carbon offsets?

Yeah, it's always environmentally friendly after it's made but never while it's made.

[MadHound]

12. This isn't feasible for a couple of reasons

First, there isn't enough land in this world to grow the ethanol needed to fuel this or any other transportation proposal. We're seeing this effect now with ethanol as merely an additive. Since ethanol has become the buzz word around energy circles, more and more farmers are growing corn, neglecting to grow other crops. Thus, with low supply, the prices for wheat, barely and other such food crops go up. In addition, with the demand for corn so high, the prices of corn and corn based products is also going up. Thus, our food prices are shooting through the roof. All because of the press to use ethanol as an additive. Try using it as the actual fuel and we'll price ourselves right out of existence.

Secondly, do you really want hundreds of millions of people all flying through the air? Hell, we have a high enough death rate traveling in two dimensions, what would happen if it went to three? Mass chaos, insanity and death. No thanks. There's a reason even the pilots of small planes undergo expensive and extensive training, to weed out the idiots.

Sorry, but not only is this pie in the sky, but simply a bad idea all around.

[Poll_Blind]

13. I've been reading about these guys since the early 80's. I have YET...

...to see them in production. The exact same design was used previously by Moshier (something, "Technologies" maybe?) with ducted fans but while a prototype was built it has never gotten more than a few feet off the ground in flight testing and all the flights are tethered. You can't see the tether in most videos but it's there hooked up to the crane you can see.

20 years and counting. 8^(

[porphyrian]

14. And you think car insurance costs too much... - n/t

[Rassah]

17. It's not a "car"

If it flies, it is a vtol aircraft, whether it is jet or turbine or whatever. That means it's under the jurisdiction of FAA. So to fly this "car" you'll need a basic pilot license - at least $5,000 to get - then a specific license for this vehicle. You will not have red lights, but will have to ask permission to enter areas and may be denied. You will have to deal with traffic if you want to use instrument rated airways if you want to fly in bad weather. And regarding "no speeding tickets," you are not allowed to fly faster than 250mph under a certain alttitude for safety and noise reasons. If you do, you're damn sure to get a speeding ticket. It really bugs me that the news of this is being reported as "it's a car free of the road," and no one ever mentions that this is a plane under strict restrictions of aviation rules.

[alfredo]

19. It's not something you can park in your suburban garage.

[hunter]

18. Drunk and distracted drivers and their victims falling out of the sky at 275 mph.

Or bits and pieces of them and their cars...

:woohoo: