An Aircar in Every Garage? The fantasy of a personal flying machine is lurching toward reality -

Technology Review ^ | May 23, 2003 | David Louis Dreier

[anymouse]

Every couple of years Moller finds some gulible writer to shill for him in getting naive investors to fund him in his perpetually "almost ready to go into production" aircar project. I first heard of him 10 years ago and it was an old gag then.

[Taxman]

"Would you like to make a small fortune in the aviation business?"

"Start with a large fortune."

I have to admit, it is beautiful to look at. I wanna fly it!

[sweetliberty]

Taking traffic jams and traffic accidents to a whole new level. Of course, I always thought this would be a good idea, but only if very few people had these vehicles, of which I would naturally be one.

[sweetliberty]

Thought you might find this interesting.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well that is interesting!

Hmm! The engine looks like the real deal, don't you think!

[anymouse]

A fool and his money are soon parted - money in the bank for Moller.

Registered puts out some real-looking stuff too on FR, but pulling an old RX-7 engine out of the junk yard and dipping it in parts cleaner doesn't make it fly.

[anymouse]

And that's how it starts. :)

A confidence man can't cheat an honest man. Wanting something for nothing is the oldest way to loose money there is. Vegas is a multi-Billion dollar town based on that premise.

[Cloud William]

That's Captiol Peak in the background. Are you the biplane pilot out of Aspen?

No, though in years past I had access to a Stearman that I helped restore and repower.

The pilot in the picture is (the late) John Denver.

[Gary Boldwater]

If that's John Denver, it's most likely the background is the Aspen area and that's Capitol Peak. On a few climbing trips to the area I've seen a biplane buzzing the mountains.

[Taxman]

Actually, I rather like the rotary engine -- the twin turbocharged Mazda RX-7 (no longer in production) is a hellofafastlittlecar!

HST, these folks should be developing a turbine engine to power their VTOL aircraft. See, for example this interesting site. They have developed some amazing little jet engines (including turboshaft variants) that would power this little VTOL puppy very nicely, and probably at less expensive.

[Taxman]

Been there, done that. But I never started with a large fortune! LOL!

[dalereed]

Moller has been promoting this for as long as I can remember, guess he must be running out of money again and is putting out press releases it sucker in a new batch of "investors"!

Personally I just want to be able to replace my Saratoga. I'll fly it myself and don't want some computer doing it. Even though I had a 3 axis coupled autopilot tht was capable of flying the aircraft to the threshold on an ILS I would never use it once I entered the airport traffic area and was under tower control.

Autopilots (computers) can only react, they can't anticipate or think!

[Publius6961]

I don't think so...

8 out of 10 drivers on the highway now are imcompetent.
They are aimers, not drivers.
Their brain is in neutral or home.

Now they need to deal with 3 dimensions, cell phones and screaming kids at the same time?
Ha ha?

[RightWhale]

Most people can barely drive

True. Aircar operators would have to be specially licensed. Something between hot air balloons and regular airplane pilots. These devices would be beyond ultralights, way beyond. In addition, if I wanted to drive the aircar to work, there would have to be a suitable takeoff and landing facility at the house, and at the place of work. These, too, would have to be licensed. In spite of this, the idea is intriguing.

[Rick_Michael]

Sounds nice, and would be welcomed in the aviation industry (because of high costs); but it's really not viable at this point in time, nor would I want a whole bunch of morons in the sky.

Frankly most people can't drive with car, and our federal government must maintain high standards in the air. I expect that one day (maybe 10-15 years from now) they'll be good for certain things in the helicopter industry. Normal people will look at them, and perhaps fly them, but the average person shouldn't...until the standards of flight are reasonable and the machine is flight worthy.

[capitalist229]

Infeasible until we get energy densities close to that of fusion allowing a vehicle to stay suspended at any height countering gravity without the use of an engine.

BUMP