Sky Car

October 20, 2008 at 7:18 pm | Posted in Economoney, Strange, Technology, Transportation | Leave a comment

A flying car? Almost ready for market?

The Moller SkyCar

“Various organizations including NASA, the FAA, the Department of Transportation, individual states and aviation industry groups are developing a small aircraft transportation system.”
Dr. Dennis Bushnell–Chief Scientist, NASA Langley Research Center

“In 50 years, Moller expects half of all Americans will be airborne.”
The Discovery Channel

“The (Skycar) engines have so few moving parts that they should require a fraction of the maintenance of a helicopter. One engine could fail and the Skycar could still hover to a landing. Piloting the Skycar should require less skill than driving a car.”
USA Today

On the other hand, the long development time has it’s issues, as touched on in Wikipedia. And here, from a year ago. “And with such a vast amount of money lost in development, executives of the flying car company now say that without a substantial infusion of cash to continue operations it’s highly unlikely the Moller M400 will ever take to the skies. Which means the closest anyone may get to it, is either reading about it in a Clive Cussler novel or seeing the prototype some day gathering dust in the Smithsonian Air & Space collection.”

As of this summer, the project continues and apparently has further funding.
http://www.moller.com/news.htm

They also mention you can fly the car if you have MS Flight Simulator 04. It’s called virtual reality.
David