Developing the Skycar

Date

Hosted byArt Bell

Dr. Paul Moller joined Art to talk about his work developing the Skycar, a personal flying car that could take off from any back garden or street and be as easy to fly as a car is to drive. He founded his company Moller International in 1983 to design, develop, manufacture, and market personal vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (VTOL). Moller was never interested in developing a machine that acts like an airplane – instead he wants to mimic the hummingbird so the device can hover. It has multiple engines and in flight, like an airplane, it can lose an engine and keep flying. There are also four separate computers in the Skycar in case one crashes or goes down.

Moller says that if it was fully functional with the proper airway network in place, you would just punch in a coded number for Las Vegas, push a button, and you would be delivered. He noted the cars would fly in a controlled environment, but that an "off-road" model could be made to allow people to fly them in free flight. The top speed is over 300 mph.

The first hour consisted of news and Open Lines, with topics including UFOs, weird weather in Cuba, marijuana legislation, and the so-called "sounds from hell," said to be coming from a deep pit within the Earth.

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