Neiman Marcus Offers First Moller Skycar For Sale 311
It doesn't come easy writes "Neiman Marcus has just unveiled its 2005 Christmas Catalog of Fantasy Gifts last Tuesday, and one of the items up for purchase is the prototype M400 Skycar from Moller International (for only $3.5 million US). If you've ever dreamed of owning a Skycar, this may be your only chance." From the Skycar site: "Can any automobile give you this scenario? From your garage to your destination, the M400 Skycar can cruise comfortably at 350+ MPH and achieve up to 28 miles per gallon. No traffic, no red lights, no speeding tickets. Just quiet direct transportation from point A to point B in a fraction of the time. Three dimensional mobility in place of two dimensional immobility. No matter how you look at it the automobile is only an interim step on our evolutionary path to independence from gravity. That's all it will ever be. "
Nice. (Score:3, Insightful)
Is this legal? (Score:1, Insightful)
Requisite "It's fake!" (Score:5, Insightful)
Comfortable Seating?! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Requisite "It's fake!" (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately for your pet theory, the Bernoulli Principal has very little to do with standard airfoil generated lift; you've been incorrectly educated (as have many). The principal responsible is the Coanda effect, and the humorous bit is that it actually causes exactly what you deride as an extremely inefficent method of generating lift (although I will agree, 28mpg seem a tad ridiculous for any aircraft). To quickly understand the Bernoulli fallacy, puzzle over this one question: How does an inverted aircraft remain both aerodynamically stable (relatively) and continue to maintain or increase altitude when the very airfoil shape that causes the Bernoulli effect is completely upside-down?
Re:Come on though imagine if these get cheaper (Score:5, Insightful)
That will probably mean.. (Score:4, Insightful)
I am not pilot-stuff, so most likely am not really any good for a flying car, except as already stated - parked in someone else's home...
Instead of focussing on the technology to get a car flying, why not focus on the technology to control an object safely in 3D, with hazard-avoidance built-in ? And while your at it, spend a little more time on the flying-technology itself and use hydrogen as a fuel-source: 'two flies in one swat'.
Re:Nice. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:cool (Score:3, Insightful)
But then again, isn't the SkyCar as much a work of fiction as Brooks' Kingdom of Landover?
Re:Requisite "It's fake!" (Score:4, Insightful)
The only thing that's wrong with the high school physics book picture is that absolutely nothing requires the air particles passing over/under the wing to ever meet again. In fact, they can't, because the rotation of air around the wing (faster over the top) is essential to lift.