Re: Is there such a thing as a hovercraft car?

Greetings:

Hollywood can create very realistic special effects to make automobiles 
appear to fly. Both models and actual vehicles are used. With proper takeoff 
and landing ramps an automobile can be airborne for about 25 meters (75 ft). 
By placing cameras underneath the airborne vehicles, looking upward at the 
sky and by using slow motion camera techniques, very realistic flight
sequencies can be filmed. Models cars on fine wires can also make very 
realistic flying sequencies. It is fascinating to see special effects being 
filmed.

Ideas for flying automobiles have been around since the 1920s. In 1940 Henry 
Ford said "Mark my word: a combination airplane and motorcar is coming. You 
may smile, but it will come".

In the late 1960s an inventor here in California made a flying
Ford Pinto. On the ground it was able to drive the freeways. At an airport 
the Pinto was parked beneath a pair of wings raised up on tall supports. The 
wings also had an aircraft engine with a conventional propeller mounted in 
the center. The wing structure and control cables
could be fastened to the Pinto's roof in a few minutes and the car could 
then take off as a 4 passenger airplane. The Pinto made many
flights during about a year of test flying and was about to be put on the 
market for sale. Unfortunately, the flying Pinto crashed
killing the inventor pilot and the project was halted.

More recently an airplane with a detachable tail and wing has been developed 
for driving on the highway. You can see a
picture of this vehicle and the Skycar on the following web site:
 http://
www.fairfieldweekly.com/articles/skycar.html

The Moller International Skycars are ducted fan vehicles that can be used 
for ground as hovercraft or for air travel. Several Skycars along with
their impressive specifications can be found on the Moller Web site at:
 http://www.moller.com/skycar/

 The following information is taken from the Moller web site:

"Moller International has developed the first and only feasible, personally 
affordable, personal vertical takeoff and landing
(VTOL) vehicle the world has ever seen. 

You've always known it was just a matter of time before the world demanded 
some kind of flying machine which would replace the automobile. Of course, 
this machine would have to be capable of VTOL, be easy to maintain, cost 
effective and reliable. Well, we at Moller International believe we have 
come up with the solution. That solution is the volantor named
M400 Skycar. 

Lets compare the M400 Skycar with what's available now, the automobile. Take 
the most technologically advanced automobile, the Ferrari, Porsche, 
Maserati, Lamborgini, or the more affordable Acura, Accord, or the like. It 
seems like all of the manufacturers of these cars are touting the new and 
greatly improved "aerodynamics" of their cars. Those in the aerospace
industry have been dealing with aerodynamics from the start. In the auto 
industry they boast of aerodynamics, performance
tuned wide track suspensions, electronic ignition and fuel injection 
systems, computer controllers, and the list goes on. What
good does all this "advanced engineering" do for you when the speed limit is 
around 60 MPH and you are stuck on crowded
freeways anyway? 

Can any automobile give you this scenario? From your garage to your 
destination, the M400 Skycar cruises comfortably at
350+ MPH at 15 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 for the 
same price as two dimensional mobility. 

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. Moller International's M400 Skycar volantor is 
the next step. "

Professor Moller believes that it will take about 15 years to develop a 
production Skycar. Let us hope that the Skycar does make it into production 
at an affordable price. Then we can have 3D traffic jams!

Best regards, Your Mad Scientist

Adrian Popa