Flying Car?

[Luke Starkiller]

Interesting. What do you make of it?

[Straha]

Interesting. What do you make of it?

Old, and, apparently realistic, I would buy one if I had the money.

[Montcalm]

If it really fly long distances and they mass produce it,it would be cool to see these flying above.

[neoolong]

With the way that people drive now, I don't think it's a good idea to give them something that can go faster.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

A few million people flying over a city at 350mph?

[Frank Hipper]

Guy's been working on this for YEARS. I first heard of it at least ten years ago, and still have yet to see one fly.

[kojikun]

the things work, they just arent all too commercial yet. and theyre only 1 person vehicles. but they get 30 miles per gallon going 350 mph. so i guess thats kind of good.

[Montcalm]

A few million people flying over a city at 350mph?

OOPS i forgot about that,(drunk driver in his flying car trying to go between two buildings and he hit one)

[Howedar]

the things work, they just arent all too commercial yet. and theyre only 1 person vehicles. but they get 30 miles per gallon going 350 mph. so i guess thats kind of good.

Thats bullshit. Moller may claim those kind of numbers, but no full-size version has yet flown (and IMHO, one never will). They are massively complex and frankly are rather poorly designed.

[kojikun]

theyve flown while tethered dude. thats flight. flying untethered is so far rather unnecessary, and i dont think its easy to get permission to fly test vehicles around the sky.

[Wicked Pilot]

That thing probably has the most negative stability than any light plane out there. If you put your average joe blow driver in one of those things he'd kill himself within a matter of minutes. You couldn't expect people to fly those things during anything but the calmest of surface winds. Visibility had better be at least 3 miles (and that's just marginal from a flying standpoint) or every driver is gonna require an instrument rating. Shit, after we start selling these things to the public, we can also give out private pilot helecopter certificates with instrument tickets to anybody with a valid driver's license. There are other reasons why this thing will not suceed in it's current form, but frankly they are too numerous to post here.

Trust me, leave this flying thing to the professionals.

[kojikun]

well no shit this thing aint going anywhere other. but its a cool novelty if youve got the money and the liscence.

[Howedar]

theyve flown while tethered dude.

Damn, flying at 350mph at 30mpg while teathered... thats impressive. flying

and i dont think its easy to get permission to fly test vehicles around the sky.

Sure as hell when your "test vehicle" is such a piece of shit like that, the FAA isn't going to be real keen on having you fly it around.

Technically though, I think all Moller would have to demonstrate to the FAA would be its structural airworthiness. Regulations aren't real strict on experimental aircraft.


Now, getting that thing certified...

[Hobot]

Howedar, what makes you think Moller Skycar is poorly designed?

[Howedar]

The fact that it utilizes vanes to direct air downwards to lift it directly.
The fact that it has no less than 8 internal combustion engines.
The fact that it is clearly statically (and probably dynamically) unstable.
The fact that the rear engines are positioned such that the fans will take in debris from the front ones.
The fact that the fans are quite small, even though they are intended to directly lift the vehicle.
The fact that the center of gravity does not appear to coincide with the center of lift, necessitating either continual thrust vectoring or other aerodynamically undesirable solutions.

Those are what come to mind, and I haven't even looked at a picture of the Moller in a year or two.

*EDIT* I just revisited their site, and frankly its worse than I remember. If Moller is getting financial backers, the man should be thrown in jail for extortion and fraud. There is no way in hell that his numbers will be acheived, and frankly I doubt very much that any number will even be close.

[Slartibartfast]

Guy's been working on this for YEARS. I first heard of it at least ten years ago, and still have yet to see one fly.

He has a prototype that looks like a flying saucer, and it actually works. He usually uses it with a security cable but it doesn't "hang" from it, probably only if the engines failed or something.

Moller has been a recurrent topic in Popular Mechanics for years. Apparently the second design (which I don't think he has actually flown, but is also been worked for years) might be feasible. There are also some figures about fuel consumption/economy and other shit.

[Peregrin Toker]

I like the basic premise but I can't make myself think that such vehicles will become widely used in the nearest future. In 2025, on the other hand...

[Shaka[Zulu]]

to sum it all up... the Moller Skycar -- and indeed its' very concept as envisioned -- is a really smelly POS with no chance whatsoever of reliably working as advertised (if it works at all in its' present form).

the idea of a flying car does have merit, but not for the populace at large. I for one think a concept that allows a more or less conventional car to be fitted with wings is quite doable (although it would be more or less tied to airport facilities when flight is desirable)... even better would be a streetable gyrocopter -- both concepts have been done (as early as the 1930's for the streetable gyro), and could be implemented far better given modern techniques.