Sunday, February 12, 2017

Paul Moller Has Been Making Flying Cars Since the Sixties

My ol' Dad had a knack for finding smart, crazy people and Dr Paul Moller of Davis, California, satisfied both criteria.  I think the connection was Moller needed a lightweight power source for his flying saucer and he must have heard my ol' Dad used McCulloch motors for go-kart racing and they were modified all to hell producing all kinds of horsepower.

Ed:  until they blew up!

Well, that would have to be explained to the flying saucer man that sometimes these motors will blow their guts all over the spaceport.


Here's one of his early efforts but the one he was trying to fly when I went out there with my ol' Dad was more crude even when it looked more like a spaceship.  That happened in 1967 or earlier but probably not by much.


You see the principle is much like the drones you can buy now since enough rotors allow stable low-speed flight.


For people who know Moller now, that part was the rest of the story since he kept on doing it and has had a prototype on the edge of going into production for years.


How about that for a radical aircraft.  It's capable of vertical flight by rotating the motors and it has an operational ceiling of about fifteen thousand feet.


How about taking it for a spin.


Ed:  it grew wings!

Unknown how it goes with his prototypes but the one at the top looks like it's full-size and the one in the bottom could be a model since the pic looks like Photoshop.

To find more about this, see Moller International:  Skycar® 400

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