[eno_]

The factory where IT will be built is almost completed (the structure, anyway). I would guess for a project like this, the production line equipment has got to be ready to go pretty much when the roof is watertight. So the timing is right. Once he starts training the factory workers, it will be impossible to maintain secrecy.

I think the scooter is a good guess. Kamen's wheelchair is awesome, and the same technology applied to a moped-like device could be a very big business indeed. Anyplace you have a tropical or mediterranean climate, a fast quiet safe (at least compared to conventinal ones) scooter would sell in the millions of units per year. Which begs the question: how fast could he expand his factories?

The main argument against it being a scooter is that they would have to be road testing it. People have seen more unacknowledged (i.e. "black") military aircraft than they have seen of IT.

[John Jorsett]

Where is the factory located? I hadn't even heard that one was being built.

[spycatcher]

The timing may be for Christmas 2002 pre-orders. Otherwise it makes no sense to introduce it in the middle of a recession and war