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. "
it's a ringer (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nice. (Score:5, Interesting)
Moller's been talking about Skycars as long as I've been alive. As far as I know, its always been "less than five years away" for the past 20 or so. He also really likes talking about his "highway in the sky", which is essentially... run of the mill avionics.
And really, given the number of accidents on the highway-on-the-ground where folks only have to worry about two dimensions, I'm glad he's been a failure thus far. At least accidents on the highway don't usually come flying into my house.
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lds
Re:Nice. (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, if people had to go through as much training to get a driver's license as they do a pilot's license the roads would probably be a better place.
I was certified to fly gliders only after many hours of instruction that included emergency situations as well as learning how to give myself large safety margins. Just the thinking process of getting my pilot's license caused me to really evaluate my driving habits as well.
As long as the license to fly a Skycar didn't end up being some sort of quickie certification you might not see as many problems as you think. Most of the truly boneheaded won't make it far enough to get the license to fly. Then again, I had some great instruction from people who loved to fly and weren't just putting in their 9 to 5 time.
Cute, but it'll never be practical. (Score:3, Interesting)
For flying cars to ever work you'd need insane amounts of safety systems for every kind of failure. We're talking backup systems for the backup systems that backup the backup systems.
You'd also need central traffic network computers to control them, because there's no way in hell the vast majority of the population could fly something at 100MPH with any safety. You think a fender bender is bad? Wait until it also makes you fall 200 feet out of the sky.
And don't try to imagine the death and devestation the first time the traffic system fails (insert "lol crash" jokes here).
Of course, anyone can figure all this out pretty easily. I'm being over-critical.
Re:Cute, but it'll never be practical. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Come on though imagine if these get cheaper (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Fuel gauge? (Score:3, Interesting)
According to TFA it has both a fuel warning system and two ballistic parachutes.
Ducted fans (Score:4, Interesting)
Ducted fan vehicles are feasible and should theoretically be capable of doing all Dr Moller claims they can do. It's a different question whether Moller's company can achieve it. People tend to become skeptical after decades of of promises...
Re:Comfortable Seating?! (Score:3, Interesting)
but.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Fuel gauge? (Score:2, Interesting)
So that means low to no emissions there. Supposedly.
Re:Truly (Score:3, Interesting)
Like when you jump off the top of a skyscraper?
Space travel is not flight. The term is a misnomer born of inapplicable earth based intuitive concepts. Space is not, despite dictionary.com, a medium. The space shuttle only flies when it lands. In space it simply falls and has some inertial motion.
Going to Mars, or Pluto, is no different and unless you burn three axis thrusters the whole way the path taken is ballistic, because. .
The medium the thrusters work against are the spacecraft itself, not a medium the spacecraft is moving through.
As an aside, penguins are not flightless, they simply require a denser medium than air in which to fly.
KFG
Re:Fuel gauge? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Requisite "It's fake!" (Score:5, Interesting)
But it's a fallacy to say that x% of lift is caused by Bernouilli's laws (which predict the pressures very accurately) or the Coanda effect or... and y% is provided by Newton's equal and opposite reaction - it's not cumulative. 100% of lift can be explained by pressure differential, and 100% of lift can be explained by Newton's theories. They are just different ways of looking at the same thing.
Re:Requisite "It's fake!" (Score:3, Interesting)
You can produce lift simply from a curved wing design provided there isn't 'boundary layer separation.' So IF the streamlines meet again after the wing, you can calculate how much lift this would provide. It's not much, but it's not zero.
Skycar will never truly fly (Score:5, Interesting)
Moller should've just stuck to making SuperTrapp mufflers for motorcycles, at least that is a successful design that works quite well. Or work some more on that wankel engine to finish getting it up to snuff for small conventional airplanes. If they could get that 150hp dual-rotor wankel to have at least a 1500 hour TBO and equipped with a planetary gear reduction drive to keep the prop at about 2700-2800 max rpm at full power, they could sell a lot of these engines to the experimental airplane homebuilders, and perhaps a de-rated 100-120hp version to the Light Sport aircraft makers That's where the real money could be.
The Elephant in the Room is not the Motor. (Score:3, Interesting)
Mod parent down, -1 Completely Uniformed (Score:3, Interesting)
But thanks for contributing your ignorance to the public. We already have enough reasons for the public to be irrationally afraid of progress in private aviation, thank you.
You're also wrong about Moller. The recent progress on the skycar has been significant due to improvements in engine technology and avionics. While nobody can be sure he'll get everything together, he is definitely closer than he's ever been, and tethered flight is still flight.
Powder + Water = Gasoline (Score:5, Interesting)
It is possible to create a powder that mixes with water to create gasoline. Years ago, while taking Organic Chemistry in college, I learned about the Grignard reaction. This synthesis can produce a solid that when mixed with water can hydrolyse to produce a hydrocarbon.
Just two minor problems - 1) It also produces an alkali (such as KOH or NaOH) which would be bad for the engine and the environment, and 2) the initial synthesis starts with a hydrocarbon! TANSTAAFL