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Thread: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

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    Default Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    The idea of a flying car has been around for as long as,... well at least as long as cars themselves. Although some genuinely neat examples have actually driven and flown...

    ...Molt Taylor's Aerocar, only one beautifully restored example is flying...



    ... and the recent Terrafugia Transition), a 21st Century equivalent of the Aerocar. But both need a pilot's License - and runway - to fly.

    http://www.terrafugia.com/





    ...none have yet offered the futuristic features most of us would want: ie park in the garage, easy and safe to fly (as a car is to drive), and VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) out of our back yards.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_car_%28aircraft%29

    My first introduction to a "flying car" was as a very little boy reading a Noddy story, and then Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's "Supercar" TV series in Black & white, which featured on NZ Television as a rerun several years after its UK debut in 1959. This "super-car" of the future could do almost anything. Like most of the Anderson's TV shows which followed (ie Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet etc), it was years ahead of its time. Every schoolboy (and girl)'s dream car!


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    Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's "Supercar". Jet, rocket and electromagnetically powered and built at a secret Laboratory in the Nevada Desert. Part hovercar, jet, submarine and spaceship.

    Fan website and various YouTube videos here:
    http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~bat/GA/supercar.html


    Many a sci-fi movie or TV program has featured them since, most notably Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Harry Potter, The Jetsons, Star Wars, Blade Runner, Back to the Future Part II, Total Recall, Lost in Space Movie, Star Trek and The Fifth Element as well as in technology magazines such as Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Mechanix Illustrated.[1].

    So where's the real Jetson's version that futurists promised we'd have by now?

    Enter the Moller Skycar. Now this isn't a car that can fly, as Dr Paul Moller readily states himself. But it is aptly named - a "car of the sky". In other words, A high-tech, roadable aircraft - essentially a robot, which doesn't yet so much pose a threat to cars, but more light aircraft and helicopters, as it combines the virtues of both. At over a million dollars a pop, we're not all going to be racing down to the nearest car yard and buying one.

    Moller has been unfairly criticized over the $80+ million expenditure to produce what so far, has "only resulted in a hovering prototype". But to keep this in perspective, many a car maker has sunk many millions more than this into developing just a single conventional engine for an "ordinary car". Moller has done much more; - developed a Wankel Rotary powerplant, computer & auto stabilisation systems, and aircraft. (The development cost of the Osprey Tiltrotor is well into the billions of dollars, but it now works very well!). Moller's Skycar is more like a layperson's private Harrier Jump Jet - that can be driven a short distance and parked in your garage - without the cost or complexity.

    Bill Robinson, journalist for Techfuture, wrote this long-overdue article on Dr Paul Moller's "Skycar".




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    The 2-seat M200 Merlin Skycar, primarily a promotional & concept mock-up at this stage, has appeared at many car shows. Powered by six rotary engines (one buried in the nose between the two front engines and mounted vertically beneath retracting covers). It also starred in a TV-movie, The Jensen Project as well as several documentaries.

    TechFuture - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming
    Posted: 05/27/2014 11:54 am EDT Updated: 07/28/2014 5:59 am EDT

    By Bill_Robinson, Business, Technology, Entrepreneurship & Rock 'n Roll Journalist

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/billro...b_5092345.html

    In telling this story, your intrepid reporter Bill Robinson meets Dr. Paul Moller, the inventor of the futuristic Skycar, a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) vehicle. The press has written copious colossal criticisms and unflattering articles on the Moller Skycar in the past, however TechFuture thought to be fair, another look was warranted.

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    From left to right, the futuristic 2-seat M200 Concept, M200 Neura "flying Saucer" flown numerous times, and the M400X Prototype which has been successfully hover tested on many occasions - several YouTube videos are available.

    "Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools." --Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

    "The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination." --Tommy Lasorda (1927- )


    A long-ago Scientific American article proclaimed:

    "The 21st century feels like a letdown. We were promised flying cars, space colonies and 15-hour workweeks. Robots were supposed to do our chores, except when they were organizing rebellions; children were supposed to learn about disease from history books; portable fusion reactors were supposed to be on sale at the Home Depot. Even dystopian visions of the future predicted leaps of technology and social organization that leave our era in the dust."

    It's the "flying cars" part that this column will examine.

    I don't know about you, but I'm not all that disappointed or "letdown" because I know they are coming; it's just a matter of time.

    However, if you are feeling dejected and gloomy, never fear; there's a flying car coming right at you in the near future. A "Jetsons-like" transportation mode is just around the corner.

    Steadfastly ignoring all the detractors and naysayers, Dr. Paul Moller has pursued his beautiful obsession to the hilt; never giving a damn about what Scientific American or anybody else was saying. He just kept right on pushing.

    Aeronautical and engineering experts have declared Moller's Skycar as "impossible" and online flamers have pontificated for years that it's a fraud, laughing and calling names all the way. But Moller and his company Moller International carry right on, unabated on his 50-year plus journey and quest for a flying car to change human life forever.

    I'm with him 1000%. I always support the underdog. I like the 'Davids' of this world and their chances to overcome insurmountable odds. I just love people who pursue their dream and don't let any of the nattering nabobs of negativism get in their way.

    None of the people who love to hate Paul Moller have talked to the man. They haven't done extensive research on him, his designs or the evolution of his Skycar; they know nothing and just lie back criticizing. Well here is Paul Moller's story.

    Growing up in a very rural part of Canada, Moller says he never really liked school. Being much more manually inclined, after high school he went to a trade school becoming a certified airplane mechanic. This necessitated his learning sheet welding and a whole host of other mechanical trade-oriented skills.

    Young Paul liked to build things. He finished his first house at age six and completed the second, this one a two-story job at nine. By the time he reached 11, he'd expanded his interest from simple earthly construction to flight, or better said, things which would take him flying.

    He then built a Ferris Wheel which was hand-cranked. No slouch this Moller fellow and the local kids loved the rides too.

    Age 15 saw him in a sports car of his own building but even this was not enough as he then tackled building his own helicopter. However, the inherent dangers of the blades and difficulty in piloting a helicopter meant that the never-satisfied Moller had to build another, better type of vehicle.

    So how did this mechanic and builder become a Master of Engineering and a Doctor of Aerodynamics?

    "McGill University is in Montreal," Dr. Moller began, "and is kind of a Cambridge/Oxford-type institution. I had the great fortuity to meet a great professor there who motivated me to seek further education and allowed me to enroll in his graduate program though I had taken no undergraduate classes at all." It was at McGill that Moller got the aforementioned two graduate degrees with no undergraduate degree and then began teaching at the University of California at Davis (near Sacramento) where he set-up the Aeronautical Engineering program. He is one of the very few people to get these advanced degress without obtaining an undergraduate degree first.

    About the move from freezing Montreal to sunny California, Moller quite naturally but emphatically says, "I couldn't take one more cold winter."

    The moment of truth for Moller that led to his half-century crusade to produce the world's first flying car happened interestingly enough when he was five years old.

    Trying to get to school through feet and feet of snow in British Columbia was the spark which ignited the search for a different form of transport within Moller's mind. According to Moller, "a humming bird was the inspiration." At the time, there were no jet planes or helicopters yet and Moller was really testing the limits of gravity with his thread-pulling type of thinking.

    "My father was a chicken-farmer," he said giving hope to chicken-farmer' children everywhere, "and I rescued a hummingbird from my father's shed. When I opened the door, he flew out, hovered for about 30 seconds and then flew away at a high rate of speed."

    This, believe it or not, was the one instant where Moller started his cause.

    Hummingbirds flap their wings at the same rate of speed whether hovering or in directional flight--about 80 times per second. Using this aerodynamic principle as the model, Moller began pursuing the same type of flying research which has yielded the Harrier "Jump Jet."

    A vehicle which could take-off from even a small area such as a driveway, Moller reasoned, then use the same propulsion source to move directionally, would be the most useful especially for broad consumer use.



    "I suppose you could say it started with my first helicopter design in 1951 (partly built before I realized that I did not have the tools or skills to finish it). The next effort was in 1962 when I built the first powered scale model of the XM-2. The Skycar model building and wind tunnel testing began in the late 1980's after the Neuera 200 was demonstrated before the press."

    "The rotary engine is the essence of the Skycar," Moller pointed out excitedly, "when you think about it, the rotary engine is not very different from a hummingbird in that it has a very high metabolism rate. Felix Wankel (inventor of the rotary engine which bears his name) was a genius. We took his principles and because our engines needed to operate efficiently at a higher power, we made some basic changes."

    Whereas Mazda, one of the few car brands to employ these rotary devices uses water to cool their automobile engines, Moller Corporation the company the Dr. Moller founded in 1983, uses air as a coolant.

    During Moller's childhood, adolescence and adulthood he had pursued this dream doggedly. Even while he was attending class, teaching or working on other businesses, his mind never wandered far from the ultimate goal: a skycar.

    In 1962, he built a six-to-one scale model of what he called the XM-2 and two years later completed a full-size prototype in his Davis, California garage. What follows here, are to me, real "Flash Gordon" type Flying Saucers.

    Moller's XM-2 also has caused a bit of a false UFO phenomenon over the years with this early footage on YouTube.

    Models XM-3 and XM-4 followed in 1968 as Moller refined the mechanics of his "beautiful machine."

    Many hurdles were encountered along the way but perhaps none more important than the engine technology; how was this contraption going to be propelled?

    It wasn't until 1985 that Dr. Moller had a stupendous opportunity to ensure the future of the Skycar, which he grabbed with both hands and refused to let go. In what was called "the single most important development" for the Skycar, Moller acquired the rights to Outboard Marine Corporation's (OMC, the makers of the old "Johnson" and "Evinrude" outboard boat motors) Wankel-type motors. Moller has since set-up Freedom Motors which manufactures the Skycar engines as a separate entity.

    "This was the real beginning of the Skycar," Moller proudly stated like a father looking through the maternity ward window. "However, there is no financial assistance for emerging technologies out there," he said dismally, "if you want to get money for something like I'm doing, I don't know where you can get it." Though I must say "the couple of hundred million" Dr. Moller's raised over the years isn't a bad start.

    Wouldn't the auto makers be a great source for strategic investment? After all, they'd have to be interested in protecting their business and hedging their bets simultaneously. "GM is a copier," Moller started and I knew this was going to be good, "and they don't even copy well. They're in terrible financial condition-basically bankrupt and they're doing nothing new." Apparently, I touched a nerve left raw and exposed by multiple approaches to the car companies.

    Not long thereafter after acquiring OMC's engine capabilities, Dr. Moller brought out the X150 Skycar.

    Today, Moller is betting the farm on the M400 Skycar (below) which he says is the one for world domination. (An accurate model for Microsoft's Flight Simulator FS9 or FSX can be downloaded from various Flight Sim sites if you have either of the two programs). This is the newer model proposed for commercial production. It differs from the prototype version (the M400X pictured above and last image) by having folding wings and a larger, full 4-seat pressurised cabin.

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    Passengers: 4
    Top speed @ 25,000 ft: 350 mph
    Cruise speed @ 25,000 ft (80% Max Range): 315 mph
    Cruise speed @ 25,000 ft (Max Range): 205 mph
    Cruise speed @ Sea Level (Max Range): 140 mph
    Maximum rate of climb: 3800 fpm
    Maximum range: 750 miles
    Net payload: 750 lbs
    Fuel consumption: approx. 20 mpg
    Operational ceiling: 32,000 ft
    Gross weight: 2400 lbs
    Installed engine power: 865 hp
    Power boost (emergency): 33%
    Dimensions (LxWxH): 21.5' x 8.5' x 7.5'
    Takeoff and landing area: 35 ft dia
    Noise level at 500 ft: 65 dba (Goal)
    Vertical takeoff and landing: yes
    Uses automotive gas: yes
    Emergency parachutes: yes


    Dr. Moller has flown the M400 "a couple of dozen times, very low to the ground" about 40-feet up and a few hundred feet in every direction. He says he's "getting to the point where I'd be comfortable flying four passengers and their cargo around for a longer period." In spite of Dr. Moller's status as the leading, if not only, Skycar scientist there are still strict limits on how far, high and fast he can go in his invention.

    It is the "vertical take-off and landing" part of the Skycar which really makes it unique and exciting. Otherwise, it's just an airplane.

    A lot of late nights and deep thought has gone into this vision and Moller must've been pulling his hair out at times. "As you may know the average car carries 1.3 people per trip," Moller told me. "Despite this, most cars are designed to carry four to five people because the cost for a two-passenger vs. five-passenger vehicle is about the same. Smaller two-passenger cars scare people because the consequences of a collision with a larger vehicle are substantial."

    Moller continued with some more technical speak, "This is very different for an aircraft, particularly one that can take-off and land vertically. The problem is that lifting thrust is not directly related to power. Instead thrust is related to power (thrust is proportional to hp2/3). This means the Skycar requires twice the power to lift approximately 50% more weight. This also means that the four-passenger Skycar 400 is going to cost substantially more than the Skycar 200. On the other hand, there is no increased danger in operating a one-passenger Skycar 100 versus a six-passenger Skycar 600."

    "The Skycar 200 and Skycar 400 have much in common with the M400 Skycar in terms of propulsion, flight control system and general appearance however with 10 years of additional wind-tunnel work and engines with much greater power there are some significant differences which we have not exposed to the public due to patents in an 'applied for' stage. We call all of our vehicles 'volantors' as from 'volant' meaning capable of flying in a light, nimble manner. The Firefly is the rescue version of the Neuera 200 (the "Flying Saucer" version)."

    "Skycar would be used in most cases as a rental vehicle or as an 'on-demand' air taxi then the Skycar would and should be available for rent in all sizes from one to six passengers," Moller envisions. The Skycar appears to be able to approach 100 passenger miles per gallon independent of size and achieve more than twice the actual passenger miles per gallon of today's automobile."

    "This is a long-winded way of saying that I think the Skycar 200 will dominate the user market as a rental vehicle while, the Skycar 600 would be the ideal air taxi."

    "We are working with the FAA to get a powered lift sub-category established within the 'Light Sport Aircraft' category. This would greatly reduce the cost of owning and operating a 'light powered lift' aircraft."

    Moller does have stockholders, investors and buyers who, much like the first Teslas, queued up for a first crack at Skycar ownership. But the critical mass necessary to turn his Skycar into a massive consumer phenomenon like the Internet has not come to fruition.

    Just as Scientific American imagined, is Dr. Moller disappointed that his Skycar hasn't yet taken off? "Well, yes and no," Moller observed, "Of course I wanted it to be in wide use by today, but without that virtual highway in the sky--the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS)--a free-flight system laying out all the rules, it's simply impossible."

    Couldn't he just cruise around in his design since he's the only one with such a vehicle? "Unlikely," he responded. Seems there are all kinds of commercial and civilian regulatory authorities who would pummel him if he did.

    In 2001, a year before Moller International (OTC-QB Symbol: MLER) went public in an IPO, Dr. Moller attracted the unfortunate attention of an SEC attorney he calls "Mr. X." As the story is told, this attorney got it into his tiny brain that a flying car was impossible, and subsequently believed Moller and the company were defrauding their investors. A multi-year witch hunt ensured during which the stock of Moller's hard-fought company lost 95% of its value.

    In a seemingly fine example of good karma, Moller fought back and he wasn't without help. His shareholders stood with him and fired back at the SEC. They created an organization and webpage called SOMI (Shareholders of Moller International) and spoke their truths to power. In 2009, Moller was forced into a personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and the plan was approved in 2012. However, the Moller crusade continued undeterred except by a mountain of government agencies and bureaucrats swathing him in red tape. Moller would not give up.

    (This is remarkably similar to what the Feds did to Preston Tucker & his Tucker Car - years ahead of its time and a serious threat to the automotive industry at the time, which had dodgy political "investment". - KE)

    The hovering visionary told me, "One of my favorite maxims which has three parts, is:

    Any radically new technology goes through three stages,

    1) It is ridiculed by those ignorant of its potential.

    And this is the one that gives me the most grief,

    2) It is subverted by those threatened by its potential.

    3) It is considered self-evident."

    Moller's list above reminded me of the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke's "Three Laws." (I interviewed Clarke in Sri Lanka in the early 2000's.)

    1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

    2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

    3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.


    Many people have scoffed and sneered at Moller and his Skycar vision in the past, asserting anything from general absurdity to outright deception about Moller and his hard-fought plans. To this he doesn't have a response. Odd I thought, I would certainly reply to my ferocious detractors. I guess people in general today are spring-loaded to the negative side and probably not without reason after the scams we've witnessed but I have noticed that these same people never take into account the longevity of the scientific pursuits and rarely seem to be pursuing their dreams with the same vigor and heartiness Paul Moller pursues his.

    Take one aggressive Moller-detractor: R. John Hansman, who is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and heads up two rather ostentatious-sounding areas called the "Division of Humans and Automation" and the "International Center for Air Transportation." Hansman called Moller's Skycar "a piece of junk," and gave a rather caustic and unfunny comedic representation that such a product already exists " ... it's called a 'helicopter,'" he wise-cracked previously--though I'm hard-pressed to find any non-academic accomplishments on the part of Hansman at all. Seems Hansman is excellent at writing technical papers which are never commercialized and criticizing others out in the business world who are at least giving it a go. While he does hold "6 US patents;" this pales in comparison to Moller's circa 50 patents issued--that's right, 50. Hansman's lack of commercial experience would seem a resounding validation of the old saying, "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach."

    When reached at his MIT office, Hansman easily discussed Moller and his invention. "The idea of a Skycar has been around a long time," Hansman said, without saying precisely how long. "If it was such a good idea, wouldn't they be out flying?" he posited cagily. I resisted pointing out that Moller HAD been out flying his Skycar. "I've never seen one which represented a good compromise between a car and an airplane," he said not knowing my next question. "You've seen Moller's Skycar, haven't you?" I said. "No, I haven't personally," was the halting response. Hansman hasn't studied Moller's designs or looked at the specific engineering involved much less been out to Moller's California labs where tours are conducted the third Thursday of every month.

    I was speechless. But after a while I mustered up the energy to ask, "How then, did you become one of the most well-known detractors of Dr. Moller?" He said, "The previous comments I made were because a guy like you, a journalist (To which I say, perhaps a journalist--but certainly not a guy "like me") called me up and pulled them out of me." I wasn't surprised that a journo had solicited the comments out of Hansman, what did surprise me was how quickly he caved. "I don't have a vendetta against Dr. Moller or anything," Dr. Hansman stated sounding worried. "So," I enquired, "you'd like to go for a ride in the Skycar someday?" "Of course," Hansman replied, "I'd love to go out to Moller's for a visit."

    Dr. Moller "would be pleased to have Professor Hansman out to show him around and discuss the Skycar with him," Moller told me after the Hansman' conversation.

    When told of Professor Hansman's interest in visiting for a quick look-see at Skycar, Moller is happy. "This guy's been my biggest detractor," he says merrily.

    All disagreements quelled, all arguments mollified; TechScape is glad to be of service.

    This is the time when I finally cajole some other responses from Paul Moller to support his dream. He gives me many supportive quotes from others, among them:

    Henry Lahore, Project leader of an extensive Skycar study undertaken by Boeing Aircraft Company--"With the developing airspace infrastructure in place, the Skycar will become a widely used un-piloted air-taxi. This is the only known commuter vehicle that can move large numbers of people very quickly and safely and still let them conveniently choose their departure point, departure time and destination."

    The late J.B. Nichols, Boeing Aeronautical Systems Consultant to Henry Lahore:
    "Our estimate of Moller's Skycar performance employing these engine pods corroborates Moller's performance estimates."

    Dr. Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center:
    "The Volantor (Skycar) will do for car-based society what the car did for horse-based society. It is the right solution at the right time." He goes on to add, "It is not a question of if but when the market for Moller' vehicles will be about $1 trillion a year."

    John Vostrez, Chief, Technical and Research Division, California Dept. of Transportation: "Moller's work goes far beyond the technology we're working on. It makes the technology we're working on look fairly mundane." Vostrez says, "Moller's idea is to use the third dimension in a three-dimensional space as opposed to just two dimensional space that we're tied to on the ground. It's really exciting."

    ABC-TV, World News Tonight, Peter Jennings: "A remarkable invention that could someday radically change the way we get to work. Definitely a technology on the cutting edge; a personal flying machine."

    Smithsonian Institution, INVENTION Series, "The Flying Car," Produced by the Discovery Channel: "Paul Moller is unique in this world of complex high technology. He is an independent entrepreneur who still makes his own test flights. It is the people with imagination and the ability to see past the end of their nose that are going to be the ones flying instead of sitting down here in grid-lock on the freeway."

    The Learning Channel (TLC), "The Ultimate Ten Machines Ever Built": A program devoted to describing and rating the ten most significant machines ever built. The Skycar was rated number 6.

    People Magazine
    , Inventors Section, "Flier Paul Moller is a Former Alien With a Real Flying Saucer": "Wary as any test pilot taking up an experimental craft, the man in the fireproof blue suit kissed his wife before climbing into the cockpit. One by one he started the eight rotary engines, then pushed a small red throttle with his left-hand and a joystick with his right. With that, engines whining, the flying saucer rose 40 feet into the air. He took his Volantor on a 150-second spin in Davis."

    Henry Ford, Chairman, Ford Motor Company-1940: "Mark my words: A combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile. But it will come."

    I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't bet against Henry Ford. (Who interestingly, declared bankruptcy at least twice before starting Ford Motor Company.)

    As the quotes above very clearly show, there is a burgeoning crew of people who think a flying car IS NOT "impossible." And the cast of characters supporting Moller and Skycar is growing; fast.

    So Dr. Moller has finally stood up for himself. I admire the fact that he hasn't mounted an all-out war against his enemies, just sat back and waited for their own implosion of negativity.

    When will we really see the Skycar proliferate?

    "You'll see them in a military or paramilitary application first. The Chinese were very interested in incorporating the Skycar into their defenses," Moller said. We'll see it proliferate "within the next few years" according to the creator. Won't the US government prevent the technology's transfer to China? "No, I don't think so," he predicted, "but I do hope it's American usage first. The war in Iraq provided an interesting opportunity for the Skycar, in terms of unmanned vehicles, though."

    "Remember what happened to the Wright Brothers: the US government didn't take any interest in what they were doing, so they came to Europe, became famous over there and were so pissed at the American government that they didn't even bring their plane back to the States until 1944--they kept it in a warehouse across the Atlantic!"

    Meanwhile, Moller was approached long ago by the Chinese for their military usage. The American government had better wake-up and smell the Skycar. How ironic would it be, to have billions of Chinese Communists hovering over our capitalistic continents? What would our President think; how would the Pentagon react?

    Isn't is possible we might see Bill Gates, George Clooney or Madonna driving one of these things before the government/military buys into them?

    Moller's voice lit up, "Well, we've been featured on Tech TV and in a number of Paul Allen-owned media, but never been able to get to the man. We can never get a chance to get in front of him and I honestly feel he would invest in the Skycar if only we could get his attention."

    Hear that Paul Allen? It does sound like one of your sort of investments.

    With regard to other possible celebrity endorsers, Moller says, "Around 1992, Michael Jackson called up to buy one. He was very popular then and my first thought was, 'what if my Skycar kills Michael Jackson!!?'"

    So as Moller flies off into the sunset ... all we can do is wait and wonder when we might all be doing the same.

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    3-View & Cutaway of the M400X Skycar prototype which has been extensively auto-stabilization & hover tested - the version most commonly seen in YouTube videos. The proposed production version - with larger folding wings - is the model portrayed in the earlier image.

    "There is nothing impossible to him who will try." --Alexander the Great (356BC-323BC)
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    For more information on Moller International, the Moller Skycars, Brochures etc, visit their website here:

    http://moller.com
    Last edited by KiwiElf; 6th May 2016 at 05:19.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    "Dr. Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center: "The Volantor (Skycar) will do for car-based society what the car did for horse-based society. It is the right solution at the right time." He goes on to add, "It is not a question of if but when the market for Moller' vehicles will be about $1 trillion a year."

    Sorry I prefer a "beam me up" approach to work, to grocery store, to schools, to near by and abroad friends. It is time to get beyond petroleum based ideas.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Quote Posted by grannyfranny100 (here)
    "Dr. Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center: "The Volantor (Skycar) will do for car-based society what the car did for horse-based society. It is the right solution at the right time." He goes on to add, "It is not a question of if but when the market for Moller' vehicles will be about $1 trillion a year."

    Sorry I prefer a "beam me up" approach to work, to grocery store, to schools, to near by and abroad friends. It is time to get beyond petroleum based ideas.
    Certainly faster grannyfranny! Well, perhaps Moller can make use of lightweight, very powerful and compact electric engines used in the Tesla S - but we'll have to wait for equally lightweight batteries to go . The great thing about Rotary engines is that they are stratified, ie they can run on any combustible fuel including non-polluting fuel such as Hydrogen. Mazda have been running a hydrogen-powered RX8 successfully for some time.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture


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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    still runs on fosile fuel. not interested

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Electric engines are the most efficent ones. the only problem, wich may be solved in the near future, are the batteries. the Tesla company is very much ahead, really good. now they released their patents. this is great opportunity for more research. but be aware of the oil industry.


    Quote Posted by KiwiElf (here)
    Quote Posted by grannyfranny100 (here)
    "Dr. Dennis Bushnell, Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center: "The Volantor (Skycar) will do for car-based society what the car did for horse-based society. It is the right solution at the right time." He goes on to add, "It is not a question of if but when the market for Moller' vehicles will be about $1 trillion a year."

    Sorry I prefer a "beam me up" approach to work, to grocery store, to schools, to near by and abroad friends. It is time to get beyond petroleum based ideas.
    Certainly faster grannyfranny! Well, perhaps Moller can make use of lightweight, very powerful and compact electric engines used in the Tesla S - but we'll have to wait for equally lightweight batteries to go . The great thing about Rotary engines is that they are stratified, ie they can run on any combustible fuel including non-polluting fuel such as Hydrogen. Mazda have been running a hydrogen-powered RX8 successfully for some time.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Interesting what futurists were thinking back in the 1950's - this was an ad from a US electrics company in 1959: You have to wonder where their "...working on it!" development went (Click on the pic to enlarge and read the copy)

    Click image for larger version

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    Even Boeing built a prototype! (Whether it actually flew is another question)
    Last edited by KiwiElf; 11th October 2014 at 13:56.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    The idea of flying cars being readily available sounds like a rather gratifying and enjoyable scenario.

    However, I find that humanity as a mass would experience far (FAR) greater benefit from the increased advent/production of public mag-lev trains than private plane/cars.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Tesla unveils all-wheel drive Model S, 'autopilot' features
    Reuters October 10, 2014, 5:01 pm

    https://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/techno...ilot-features/

    By Nichola Groom

    HAWTHORNE Calif. (Reuters) - Tesla Motors Inc on Thursday took its first step toward automated driving, unveiling features that will allow its electric sedan to park itself and sense dangerous situations.

    The company also said it will roll out an all-wheel drive option of the Model S sedan that can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds yet doesn't compromise the vehicle's efficiency.

    The car is like having a "personal roller coaster," Tesla CEO Elon Musk joked after making the announcement at the packed event in Hawthorne, California.

    Tesla's announcement had been eagerly anticipated since Musk last week tweeted that it was "about time to unveil the D and something else."

    Onstage on Thursday, Musk said "D" stands for "dual motor," meaning Tesla's all-wheel drive vehicle will have a motor at either end of the chassis to increase control.

    In addition, Musk said that the Model S cars that are rolling off the line today already have the hardware for what he called "autopilot." The features include a long-range radar, image recognition so the vehicle can "see" things like stop signs and pedestrians, and a 360-degree ultrasonic sonar.

    The car can park itself in a garage, turn on the air conditioning in advance of a trip and recognize obstacles on the road. He cautioned, however, that "autopilot" was not fully autonomous driving and would not allow a driver to fall asleep at the wheel.

    The new features will give Tesla momentum while consumers wait for the launch of its third vehicle, the crossover SUV Model X, next year, said one industry analyst.

    "Until the Model X arrives, a vehicle that will substantially amplify Tesla's appeal and volume potential, these upgrades should keep the Model S at the forefront of advanced personal transportation," said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.

    Automakers are racing to develop such features as cars that apply brakes automatically when they sense an impending collision or slow down because a vehicle ahead on the highway has warned that traffic has stopped. However, the automakers say the transition will be evolutionary, with such features added slowly over many years as new models are rolled out. Meanwhile, Internet search company Google Inc is developing the technology for a completely driverless car.

    General Motors Co said last month that its Cadillac brand will introduce a car in 2016 that communicates with other vehicles and will also introduce a vehicle that incorporates semi-automated hands-free driving technology.


    (Reporting by Nicola Groom in Los Angeles and Supriya Kurane in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

    This is an important step in the sort of technology to integrate into the Skycar which Dr Moller has been waiting for - KE

    PS - Thank you TargeT - that's a sleek-looking beast!
    Last edited by KiwiElf; 12th October 2014 at 02:06.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    The race is on for flying car start ups

    http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/14/te...ld-flying-car/

    (Videos & photographs of the examples discussed at link)

    By Peter Shadbolt, for CNN
    updated 10:32 AM EST, Fri November 14, 2014 | Filed under: Innovations

    The race to develop and mass-produce the world's first fully functional flying car is beginning to resemble the early days of aviation more than 110 years ago when other contenders, besides the Wright brothers, were battling to get their machines off the ground. Pictured above is the Flying Roadster from Aeromobil unveiled in Vienna last month [see Post #9, above]. The race to develop and mass-produce the world's first fully functional flying car is beginning to resemble the early days of aviation more than 110 years ago when other contenders, besides the Wright brothers, were battling to get their machines off the ground.

    The technology to give us the world's first affordable and easily pilotable flying car is almost here
    Start-ups are already moving their prototypes forward but which will be the template for the future is up for grabs
    Krossblade Aerospace is developing a vertical take-off and landing flying car it says will carry five passengers
    Aeromobil from Slovakia has already produced a working prototype that was unveiled in Vienna last month


    (CNN) -- Not since the Wright brothers flew the first powered aircraft near Kitty Hawk in 1903 has the competition been so intense. The technology that can give us the world's first affordable and easily pilotable flying car is almost here.

    Several start-ups are already moving their prototypes forward and the race is on.

    But just like the early days of flight, there are several schools of thought about which model will be the most efficient, workable and worthy of being the template for the future.

    No need for a runway

    "For me, it has to be vertical take-off and landing," said Daniel Lubrich, the managing director of Krossblade Aerospace Systems. "I think this idea of an aircraft you can drive on the street but you still have to find an airport for is nice, but it doesn't really solve the problem."

    His Arizona-based team has developed a concept for a hybrid five-seat transformer airplane called a SkyCruiser.

    Looking a bit like the lovechild of a futuristic light plane and the flying vehicle known as "The Bat" from the movie "The Dark Knight Rises", the SkyCruiser sports foldable wings and four foldable rotors with electric motors powered by a Wankel rotary engine generator.

    The quadcopter concept would allow the flying car to take off vertically from a traffic jam, for instance, without the need for a runway.

    Once airborne, it would switch to horizontal flight, using two 150 bhp electric motors in the tail to power it through the air at more than 300 mph. The designers claim it could fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco in little more than an hour -- faster than any other drivable aircraft currently in development.

    On the ground, its 31-foot (9.5 meter) wingspan can be stowed, its four rotors retracted and electric motors in the wheels can drive the vehicle along the road at 75 mph (112 kph). However, with a total length of 8.4 meters (27.5 feet), don't expect to park it on any city block with ease.

    Lubrich says he envisages the hybrid could fly almost three times faster than equivalent projects; a necessary advantage in his native Germany, where cars can already travel as fast as 85 mph on the country's autobahns, with some stretches even free of any speed limit.

    "I think you need to fly significantly faster than that to really have an advantage," he told CNN. "If you only fly at 110 mph, you're only going a little bit faster, you have to pay a lot more money in fuel and you still have to land at an airport.

    "A flying car really needs to be optimized for flight -- if you have to drive a little bit it should only be a mile or two."

    Currently its prototype, a model called the SkyProwler, has worked according to plan and the company says it's only a matter of time before it can be scaled up into five-seat, fully operational flying car.

    Ease of control

    While quadcopter technology is not new, the fact that it is now computer driven has changed the aviation landscape.

    Lubrich explained that, unlike helicopters, quadcopters cannot change the pitch of their rotors to achieve maneuverability. Instead, the four rotors make adjustments by changing the speed at which they rotate.

    "The drone revolution, with its multi-rotors, has changed everything," he said. "The very first attempts to have vertical takeoff were not helicopters but quadcopters in the 1920s and even earlier.

    "They had the problem that they didn't have computers for the flight control so the pilot had to constantly adjust for the minute differences in the composition of the rotors. They were impossible to fly.

    "Now we have flight computers and they do everything wonderfully and automatically. Press up and they go up, press left and they go left -- you don't have to worry about calibrating and controlling it."

    Flying in from the East

    Another flying car pioneer is the Slovak company Aeromobil whose Aeromobil 3.0 flying car was unveiled in Vienna last month. Dubbed the Flying Roadster, the sporty working prototype looks like a finished production model and has a range of 430 miles (700 kilometers) and a top air speed of 124 mph (200kph).

    "We are just so happy that we are not the only ones doing this. If we were, maybe people would think we were just crazy..."
    Juraj Vaculik


    Co-founder of the company Juraj Vaculik told CNN the quest to find a workable solution to the flying car may be in its final stages.

    "This race is actually almost 100 years old," Vaculik said. "I love the pioneering history of aviation and the first attempt to build a flying car was in 1917 -- since then there have been plenty of others."

    "The technology now is so accessible and at such a high level. Carbon fiber materials, high-tech technologies; 10 years ago these things were just so expensive and out of reach for small teams."

    "The quality of the autopilot systems that we were able to install in our prototype, for instance, even five years ago was just an impossible dream," he said.

    While the Aeromobil needs some aviation infrastructure to operate, its makers say that it has proprietary systems which make it flexible. With variable angle of attack wings, the flying car has increased lift for takeoff and greater drag for landing.

    "Europe and the United States have plenty of small airfields and sports airfields, but at the same time with this prototype you don't need that. All we need is a 250-meter grass strip for take off and just 50 meters for landing."

    Rules and regulations

    As with most new systems, both start-ups say the biggest hurdles are likely to be regulatory and political. In this respect, Aeromobil says the MyCopter project -- which is investigating the regulatory and logistical problems with mass air traffic -- has been invaluable for the nascent flying car industry.

    "It's similar a situation with many innovations," he said. "When mobile phones came in they created a completely different environment that needed new regulations and new ways of thinking."

    "What the guys in MyCopter are doing is creating the right set up for how air traffic systems could be organized."

    While there's some rivalry between the start-ups (Vaculik remains skeptical of fuel-heavy vertical take off models which he says need too much power to lift the dead weight of the vehicle), he says it's mostly collaboration.

    "We are just so happy that we are not the only ones doing this," he said. "If we were, maybe people would think we were just crazy."

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    As Targe says they are supposed to be coming.......I'l be surprised if you can get one
    and start flying in the UK which is relatively small. But other places probably.

    Flying Car Goes On Sale By 2015 || Breaking News



    At last. 200kph AeroMobil 3.0 flying car test flight



    Published on 29 Oct 2014


    AeroMobil 3.0, the world's first production-ready 'flying car,' soared the skies above Airport Nitra in Slovakia on the test and promo flight.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Quote Posted by Cidersomerset (here)
    ..I'l be surprised if you can get one and start flying in the UK which is relatively small. But other places probably.
    the airspace issues will cause a lot of complications.

    most likely you'll have to get a pilots license.. File a flight plan? check in with towers?

    Airspace is so tightly controlled, I don't know exactly how these things will become "main stream"; if these limitations are not overcome we might not see flying cars outside of airports very often.


    I can only imagine what these vehicles would do for guerrilla warfare, imagine a VBIED (Vehicle Born Improvised Explosive Device) in the air.... suicide bombings would become a bit more frightening.
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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Currently yes, the same rules would apply as for existing aircraft, which kind of defeats the purpose (although I don't quite know how RC drones fit into that, which given the current infrastructure is a worry to pilots). I'm not aware that any drones have (yet) caused a manned aircraft to crash, although I know there have been some near misses!

    NASA's "highway in the sky" is years behind their anticipated deadline and would be necessary for Moller's dream to reach its full capability, plus the necessary infrastructure needed to make it fully effective. If it were possible to literally take-off out of your back yard and fly directly to your friend's house say, 1-200 miles away, the time savings in getting to and from an airport or heli-pad is enormous. It is literally point-to-point travel. But then you have safety issues, noise control, low flying over populated urban areas etc.

    There's the inevitable cost. How many of us have a half million bucks plus to shell out on an aircraft today - which might get you into a new but relatively modest Cessna 182... or a Bugatti Veyron or top of the line luxury car for that matter (let alone a flying car - they're not going to be cheap). To most of us, that's the cost of an average "nice" house!

    Then there's the cost of the infrastructure. Currently,what does a country spend on continual roads and service stations along the way in a year? For an automated flying car, great! We can do away with physical roads. Now you're talking new communication towers, satellites, highly advanced and literally fail-safe computers, landing pads etc. Perhaps the whole way we build our cities right down to the type of house & backyard.

    The real advantage of a Skycar in theory (or airplane/helicopter) is TIME. Yes, generally, flying is faster than going by car if the distance is say, more than a 100 miles, until you factor in getting to and from the airplane: Remember the last time you booked an airline seat or flew somewhere: pack the car, unpack the car at the airport, reload it into an aircraft, prep the aircraft, taxi it, and maybe hours later you might be airborne! Then go through the whole process again at your destination). At some busy airports, you can spend a long time just taxiing (and even longer waiting... and waiting... .

    Sure, there are numerous airplane skyparks and "villages" dotted around the world (where you can fly your aircraft, land and literally "drive" it up the road & park it in the garage of your house), but only because the village has been designed & built that way from scratch).

    If the Skycar were available now, it would and could be flown much like a conventional helicopter or aircraft in terms of the legalities. But again, pilot's license, medicals and all the rest of the necessary skills and certificates would be required.

    I would anticipate that a fully automated, computerised "traffic controller" will be needed to make it work (and hopefully eliminate the possibility of mid-air collisions). That would apply to conventional aircraft too. Aircraft/airliner manufacturers are talking robot aircraft (no pilots) in the very near future and car manufacturers are developing and marketing driverless cars - they're already here (see earlier post on the newer Tesla's).

    Making a "flying car" (or SkyCar) itself, is not such a biggie any more. Quad copters for example: They've been around for over half a century, but to actually fly them in stable, controlled flight was virtually impossible without computerised "auto-stabilisation", (the pilot would be trying to adjust 4 different engines at the same time, individually - ouch!) - this has been made possible only recently thanks to miniaturised computing and micro chips. With such a system, if you let go all the controls, an advanced quadcopter (or helicopter) will come to a perfect hovering stand-still, even in winds, without any input from the pilot. You can buy an electric high performance RC quad copter model at a kid's toy store for well under $300. 20 years ago? Impossible.

    Somehow, I don't think they'll be as viable, affordable, plentiful or as convenient as a mass replacement for a car until we get anti-grav, silent green engines and a AI computer technology to match, with an environment which will need to adapt to their use just as road going vehicles have changed the way we get around from the days of horse and cart.

    Going back to the first cars, pre- the Model-T Ford: only the very wealthy could first afford them. The "roads" were horse tracks. Safety features? Pray... and then jump. They weren't too comfortable or reliable either. Road rules & driving schools? None. And initially, gas stations were rare.

    The necessary technology & infrastructure and using a flying car the way it was intended, at the moment, is the problem.

    Need versus supply and demand. Slowly, we're getting there.

    EDIT: You can now actually buy a working Radio Control, 32" flying scale model of the Moller SkyCar here, but it aint cheap! - And yep, it apparently will do most of the things the real version will do!

    http://globenewswire.com/news-releas...rs-Coming.html

    http://asi.t324.com/products/moller-...C2%AE-400-vtol
    Last edited by KiwiElf; 29th July 2015 at 15:57.

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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Anything with 'wings', and uses fossil fuels and internal combustion engines for power is just so much 'horse & buggy' technology, when we KNOW that 'relatively simple' advanced technology and 'free-energy' is available, but restricted to use by the secret programs and elite.
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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    navigation would have to be 100% automated, no human pilots. Imagine 1,000,000 of these things flying around manhattan, logistical nightmare. They first have to get the driver less automobile established, then they can graduate to flying cars.
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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Moller Sky-Car flawlessly engineered says NASA

    http://www.examiner.com/article/moll...ered-says-nasa

    A Canadian connection exists with this ‘flying car’, and with at least one other IFO. (Identified Flying Object – [article will follow])

    Automobiles definitely can fly. A number of ‘personal air vehicles’ (PAV) have achieved a good take-off and a safe landing as well in the past. However, actual production of any of these “hybrids” never got off the ground — yet.

    ‘Hybrid’, - what a useful word; if we have not yet found a proper word for it, it’s a hybrid.

    In last week’s article about PAVs, we looked at a few earlier efforts and the persons connected with them. With recent advances in materials and computerization, ‘flying cars’ must be taken seriously in the near future.

    One ‘aeromobile’ that is coming close to being ready for production, [for a number of years now] according to transportation experts, is the Moller Skycar. This unique vehicle has been in development for a very long time, seems eminently suitable for its intended purpose, but like many great things, it arrived before its time.

    Only now, and with proper funding, will the Moller Skycar become feasible, because autonomous control is just now entering the industry — other than in commercial airplanes— in self-driving cars and trucks.

    Dr. Paul Moller is a Canadian-born scientist and inventor, who worked as a professor of aeronautical engineering at the California University at Davis.

    Moller also succeeded as a businessperson in real estate development, owning an industrial park, where he has developed his idea of a sky-mobile since 1983 in his own company and with mostly his own money.

    Over time, Moller also acquired the rights to OMC’s (Outboard Marine Corporation) Wankel engine technology for air and water-cooled rotary engines. However, one aircraft company, Curtiss-Wright, no longer active in that field, was one of the initial license holders of the Wankel patents for aircraft in North-America. A lengthy lawsuit finally was settled, and for 60 million dollars Moller now owns another company, developing the same type of rotary engines that have proven so successful for Mazda in the past. (Winning the 24 Hours at Le Mans)

    Several ‘Skycar’ models have been developed by Moller International over the last twenty-five-plus years. Gradually, the Military and public agencies became interested in these “Flying Jeeps”. Since 2003, two-seater, four-seater and larger version have been test-flown - with restrictions.

    Moller seems to have enough money and patience to wait for the right time to introduce the dream of his lifetime to the general public; That time might be soon, with ‘piloted driving’ from Audi and ‘driverless navigation’ from several other automakers; both monikers are connecting sky and street.

    Moller envisions the future of flying along these lines: “Before leaving home, you would program the Skycar's computer to take you to your destination, including entering your private security code. The computer would negotiate electronically with the Federal Skyway Administration's -- a fictitious new agency within the Department of Transportation -- central computer system. The two computers would agree on a flight schedule, including departure time, in-route speeds and altitudes and the arrival time. As soon as you are buckled in and give your consent to go, the Skycar would take-off on its own and fly its pre-programmed route.
    You would be the passenger; the computer would be the pilot. The only way you could modify your flight plan would be to request a change from the central airways management system. Autonomous, uncontrolled diversions would not be allowed”.

    However, before the time of the flying car is here, the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) and NASA come into the picture; — they still have to give their blessing before you and I can leave the highways use the sky-ways.

    Already, government and air safety scientists are working to design a network of [electronic] highways in the sky. While working on the software programs, NASA calls this SATS (Small Aircraft Transportation System).

    The current Moller models fly with small twin engines in each of four ‘power pods’; each engine is comparable in size and power to that of a medium-small motorbike at 500cc. In addition, Moller states that he has ”incorporated two emergency descent parachutes into the vehicle, one to safely slow down the vehicle from its 450 km/h cruising speed and the second to safely bring down the entire vehicle.

    The rotary-engine design should also minimize catastrophic accidents. Moller says that the vehicle can continue to hover if it loses one of its engines, and can still safely land at 70 km/h even if it loses a complete power pod. He added that he “included the twin parachutes as ‘confidence builders’ to enable husbands to convince their wives the plane is safe”.

    Aviation experts at NASA, Boeing and MacDonnell-Douglas agree, and have declared Moller's prototypes to be impeccably engineered. These people consider Moller’s Skycar models as the first real serious forerunner of the age of civilian aeronautics and have given Moller International permission for flight testing.

    Computerized aerial navigation would aid national security: with G.P.S. and cell phone technology, flying cars could be tracked more easily than any road vehicle. It would not be possible to deviate from the electronic flight-plan. ''The technology already exists in the military, and we're adapting it so it can come standard on any personal air-vehicle and still be affordable,'' Sally Johnson, the technical leader of NASA's Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) project, says; ''It's not a big jump to put these on flying cars.''

    Skycars would be the ideal vehicle not just for personal transportation, but also for fire or ambulance departments to access high-rise buildings, for example. Skycars could ‘drive’ right up to a window for a rescue, contrary to a helicopter; the sky is the limit for Skycar’s usefulness.

    The UK’s Daily Mail reported that Moller may have a Chinese manufacturer produce Skycar, making flying cars a reality after 100 years of experimenting.

    As Henry Ford said in 1940, "Mark my word. A combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You may smile. But it will come”.

    —— It is HERE!

  27. Link to Post #18
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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    For those who are still wondering what the heck a Wankel rotary engine is, this video demonstrates:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BCgl2uumlI#t=159

    The Moller-made Freedom Wankel rotary engines used to power the Skycars are smaller dimensionally and air-cooled, a bit different from the water-cooled versions used in Mazda's rotary-engined sports cars (RX7, RX8 etc). However, the principle and general workings are the same.

  28. Link to Post #19
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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    Nice, awesome post!

    I also have some ideas on going airborne, if no one minds: I think hydrogen should be used for lift, hydrogen has twice the lift of helium, and that we should set a default on the vehicles so that in the event of a motor failure, the vehicle would float up instead of crashing. We could set the buoyancy pretty accurately, to say 100 or 200 metres or so, by how much hydrogen we use in carbon fibre balloons above vehicles.

    Hydrogen was only given a bad rap and condemnation by the MSM because of its' immediate ability to replace oil in all we do.

    Anyway, yeah, 4 electric motor turbines on the sides, with the ability to rotate through 3 axises, would be superb. The other advantages to electric motors are displayed in this video, where a guy east of me here in Quebec set the guinness record for longest hoverboard flight. He did this because he used electric motors and batteries.



    Electric is lighter, and I'm all for dropping the extra weight involved with using internal combustion engines and all of their required supplemental support systems.

    We also already have the GPS ability to have all vehicles be aware of all other vehicles, and avoid collisions while in use, I think the stage is set to proceed into the sky

    A personal project I'd like to build someday, would be a sky chopper. This other picture is one of the older, antiquated flame based sky choppers. It lacks any steering or speed control, so, it needs to be updated.

    I'd like to build a detachable balloon for a sky chopper that would fly over the treetops when on, or detach and go 2 wheels on the surface. 4 electric motor turbines and one in the tail, like a helicopter, to steer the tail around. Electric motors are instantly stoppable and virtually instantly reversible, and would work absolutely perfectly in this type of application.

    Because vehicles would default to floating up, we would need some type of post to attach to when the motors push the vehicle down to the ground. A valve to release all of the hydrogen from the balloon will enable long term storage. I think the design of the carbon fibre balloon I'd try first would be the shape of a Swordfish. I believe they are the fastest swimmers, and so their bodies are likely the best design to cut through air as well. 4 turbines, perhaps even in the shape of fins, and one in the tail, it would be perfect.
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    Default Re: Where's My Flying Car? - Hold On! Paul Moller's Skycar Is Coming - TechFuture

    The Martin Jetpack – Fly the dream

    (from the manufacturer's webpage - more here):
    http://www.martinjetpack.com/



    Ready to fly?

    Named as one of Time magazine's Top 50 inventions for 2010, the Martin Jetpack, the world’s first practical jetpack, with potential usage spanning search and rescue, military, recreational and commercial applications, both manned and unmanned. The Martin Jetpack was initially conceived and developed by Glenn Martin in Dunedin in 1981. This led to the founding of Martin Aircraft Company in 1998 and the development of a Jetpack that based on current testing will have over 30 minutes flight capability at a speed of up to 74 km/h and an altitude up to 1,000 m (3000ft).

    The Martin Jetpack is a disruptive technology, much like the helicopter was when first developed, with substantial capabilities and is able to be flown by a pilot or via remote control. The Jetpack can take off and land vertically (VTOL) and because of its small dimensions, it can operate in confined spaces such as close to or between buildings, near trees or in confined areas that other VTOL aircraft such as helicopters cannot access.

    Martin Jetpack has been designed with safety in mind and for easy adoption, with pilot qualifications easy to obtain. The Jetpack is “fly by wire” so unlike other aircraft including helicopters it is relatively easy to operate and with its ballistic parachute system that can safely recover the aircraft from a few meters above the ground it will be one of the most safe light aircraft on the market.

    Martin Jetpack’s capability gives it a competitive advantage in key markets: first responder, military, commercial and recreation. As a heavy lift Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle (UAV), the Martin Jetpack has a significant operational advantage being able to carry commercial payloads of up to 120kgs unlike Quadcopters which are limited to only a few kilograms.

    Following the successful introduction of the Jetpack into the first responder community, the company will work on developing a jetpack for leisure and personal use.

    Commercial Jetpacks are no longer the domain of science fiction-come fly the dream!

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