| SkyCar | 2004-01-17 06:46 24 comments |
 by Flemming FunchThe Moller SkyCar seems to be making progress. If you don't know what it is, it is a project to make a flying car about the same size and price as a big Mercedes automobile. But which can fly 500km/h, by auto-pilot, and which can hover in the air and land just about anywhere. Paul Moller's company has worked on it for years. It is a significant enginineering task. They've spent 100 million dollars on R&D, which is really very little in this context. Recently they've done successful hover tests, and expect to do full flight testing within 5 months. Seems like it would at the earliest be available for real use in about 4 years. But you can reserve yours right now if you can afford it. Various things will need to happen before it can be in normal use, as it is intended to fly by computer control in designated highway corridors in the air. So that needs to be set aside, and the thing needs to be approved by the proper authorities. And, yes, it guzzles gas. Per kilometer it won't be anything more than a regular car. But you're of course more likely to go shopping 100s of km away if you have one of these. Nevertheless, it is about time we get some flying cars. |