Paul Moller of Moller International explains his invention in this video. It’s a little long and very dry so if you don’t have 15 minutes you may want to fast forward to 13:00 into the video. If you have the time though I would recommend watching the entire video, it’s pretty interesting.
“You feel like you’re being lifted up by a magic carpet.” Do you need any further convincing than the magic carpet quote and the pics above?
The M400 is a a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle or VTOL for short. That means that it can liftoff and land vertically like a helicopter but once it’s airborne it can fly like an airplane. It seats 4 passengers and has a top speed of 330 mph. It has a maximum range of 750 miles and actually gets about 20 miles per gallon.
That’s better than my Yukon and if you’re flying you won’t waste gas idling at red lights, waiting in rush hour or missing an exit. You can fly directly to your destination using the shortest path, a straight line. I don’t see flying cars replacing our vehicles for normal commutes to work or the grocery store, but how awesome would it be to fly your family to Disneyland yourself next year and not have to rent a car when you get there?
A few more cool facts about the skycar. It can travel at 30,000 feet, that’s twice as high as a helicopter. It can be adapted for water takeoff and landings which means you can drop in on your favorite fishing spot now without the 2 mile hike in. Yes, you do need a pilots license but they are working on automating the entire process so a computer does all the work and you just sit back and enjoy the ride.
Most importantly is the price. The M400 is currently projected to cost around $500,000 with plans of only producing about 500 a year. Moller estimates that as production ramps up the cost will come down to somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000. That’s not pocket change but that’s also not out of reach for the average person.
There are still so many things that need to fall into place for something like this to become a reality for the average person but the fact that this man has spent 30 years of his life developing a flying car is pretty awesome and I think we all owe him a big thank you.
Note that Moller’s products aren’t anywhere near the point of production, and that none of the performance numbers quoted above have been verified in flight. In fact, all the Skycar has ever demonstrably done is to hover about twenty feet off the ground for about thirty seconds. Paul Moller has been saying that his creations are “almost ready for production” for more than thirty years, but they never seem to get any closer. When he can demonstrate that his craft can do something more than wobbly hovering for a few seconds, then I’ll take a closer look.
Good point, to quote a famous Nascar driver:
Ricky Bobby: No one lives forever, no one. But with advances in modern science and my high level income, it’s not crazy to think I can live to be 245, maybe 300. Heck, I just read in the newspaper that they put a pig heart in some guy from Russia. Do you know what that means?
Lucius Washington: No, I don’t know what that means. I guess longer life.
Ricky Bobby: No, he didn’t live. It’s just exciting that we’re trying things like that.