Into The Air, Junior Birdmen

Although  the Moller company's flying saucer  sales are presently limited to polo shirts and baseball caps depicting same, the Volantor 7 flying car has actually gotten off the ground.

Slightly- its eight Wankel engine driven fans operate in the ground effect mode, limiting its safe and sane ceiling to ~10 feet, down somewhat from the 36,000 projected for its Model 400, which  though designed like a bat out of hell, antedates the control software stabilizing the Volantor, and has been kept on a very short leash. Here's a clip of the new gadget flying inVolantorily tethered to its crane.

Kudos to Moller for getting it up and out of the ground effect envelope!Ought to be an X-Prize for the first one to fly XC miles on IX gallons of ethanol.

Comments

[HaloJones-Fan]

Uh, the Model 400 has been flying above ten feet (and out of ground effect) for quite some time now.

PS got here from Jerry Pournelle's site. The arsehole considers this machine to be nothing more than an agricultural subsidy. See, it burns ethanol, and EVERYONE knows that ethanol is just Big Agro working its lobby power...
RESPONSE
The makers are doing their own Greenwashing- ethanol is the fuel their press release specifies.
As to the high-flying Model 400, they confess:
"• We are test flying within the Davis City Limits
• We presently have only one M400 aircraft
• Our insurance will go up substantially when the tether is not used while flying over land"

[shark pee]

Moller is a total wanker. These tools of transportation are not proven to be efficient uses of resources or fuel consumption and the man can't even fly them without the aid of a crane tether. he's spent over 30 years trying to challenge propellers and airfoils, pushing his fortune and getting no rise for his shareholders. The 400 has shabby welds on the roll cage, and lands like a meteor. forget this quack

[Health News]

Thank you for introducing me the wonderful information.And .....Totally boring.!