Moller Skycar

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A poster of the skycar

Moller Skycar M400

Skycar M400 hover test.

The Moller Skycar is a prototype personal VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft — a "flying car" — called a "volantor"^[1] by its inventor Paul Moller, who has been attempting to develop such vehicles for many years.

1 Description
2 Presales
3 SEC complaint
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Description

The craft currently under development, the M400, is intended to ultimately transport four people. It is described as a car since it is aimed at being a popular means of transport for anyone who can drive, incorporating automated flight controls. The driver should only input direction and speed, no pilot knowledge being required.

Further, developers claim that by using eight inexpensive Wankel rotary engines, its price will eventually fall close to that of a quality car, even if at the moment the price for the first units is expected to be close to USD$1 million.

Its proposed features would include 275 mph (442 km/h) cruise speed, 375 mph (603 km/h) maximum speed, eight redundant, low-emission Wankel engines for safety, residential garage size, fuel consumption like a big car, a parachute for the whole machine and road capability for short distances (to be driven to a vertiport). Although current plans call for use of alcohol fuel, cheap, lightweight fuel, such as liquid hydrogen, could be used as an alternative to gasoline, as in the Mazda RX-8 Hydrogen RE, although the lower energy density will limit range.

The Skycar demonstrated limited tethered flight capability in 2003. More tethered flight tests are now scheduled for an undisclosed date sometime after mid 2006. Moller is currently upgrading the Skycar's engines, and the improved prototype is now called the "M400X". Additional flight tests will supposedly be conducted once Moller engineers have completed the upgrades to the Skycar's nacelles with the larger engines (projected for 2007).^{[citation needed]}

Discovery Channel's MythBusters has reported that more than 200 million US dollars have gone into the development of the Skycar.

[edit] Presales

Moller has been taking refundable deposits on the M400 since 2003^[2]. Refund conditions include failure to meet rated performance or failure to obtain US FAA flight certification by December 31, 2005. Since 2003, Moller has slipped the date for FAA flight certification one year each year. ^[2]^[3]. As of 2006, Moller's claimed date for FAA certification stands at December 31, 2008.

In October 2006, Moller attempted to auction the only prototype of its M400 model on eBay. It failed to sell. The highest bid was $3,000,100; Dr. Moller reported at the annual meeting of stockholders on October 21, 2006 in Davis, CA that the reserve price had been $3,500,000. ^[4] A previous attempt in 2003 to sell the M400 via eBay was also unsuccessful. ^[5]

[edit] SEC complaint

Given the machine's very protracted development and its ambitiousness, skepticism that the machine will work as claimed remains high. In 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Moller for civil fraud (Securities And Exchange Commission v. Moller International, Inc., and Paul S. Moller, Defendants) in connection with the sale of unregistered stock, and for making unsubstantiated claims about the performance of the Skycar. Moller settled this lawsuit by agreeing to a permanent injunction and paying $50,000.^[6] In the words of the SEC complaint, "As of late 2002, MI's approximately 40 years' of development has resulted in a prototype Skycar capable of hovering about fifteen feet above the ground."^[7]

In response to the abovementioned SEC complaint, Dr. Moller explains the case to The Wall Street Transcript, "TWST: Looking back over the years as you’ve worked on these things, has there been any controversy? I read that the SEC issued a complaint. Dr. Moller: That’s correct. TWST: Could you explain that? Dr. Moller: Yes. Any non-public company (which we were early on) that raises money from what we would call angel investors or any investors has to raise it under certain SEC regulations that require you to determine that you are dealing with sophisticated investors. The problem is that sometimes people who want to become investors in your company will exaggerate their own net worth or sophistication, and it’s really up to us to determine whether that’s valid or not. We did have some investors come on board that the SEC argued were not sophisticated. Normally this kind of issue is resolved by providing a rescission agreement so that the investor can get his money back plus 12% interest. We have used this before successfully when any issue came up. The individual we were dealing with within the SEC resisted this approach. We believe he did so knowing that the investors in question did not want their money back and this would have voided his case. Any small company that has faced off against the SEC will tell you that you do not fight this powerful government agency. You accept a fine to settle. You don’t accept guilt. You’re not claimed to be guilty, but a fine is a way of getting rid of something that you could never win if you really try to defend yourself. If anybody has experienced a fight with the IRS or the SEC, they learn quickly enough that, as a small company, you don’t have the government resources to legally fight it. The few who try always lose."