VICTORIA (CUP) “It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s . . . a Skycar!”
That’s what Skycar inventor Paul Moller hopes we’ll all be saying in the future.
The B.C.-born inventor and head of Moller International has spent his entire life working to realize his dream of developing a flying car to revolutionize public travel.
Inspired by hummingbirds when he was a young man growing up in Trail, B.C., Moller has gone through hundreds of millions of dollars, survived repeated bankruptcies, and developed numerous new technologies on his quest to change the way we travel.
“It will change the way we live for just about everyone,” said Moller from his office in Davis, California. “There are a whole bunch of things that will change. The ability to go anywhere you want isn’t something we can do today. This is a way where everyone would have the option.”
His company, Moller International, intends to do this through the design and eventual mass production of the M400 Skycar, one of a series of models the inventor has been developing since his first days in graduate engineering studies at McGill University.
Using a hybrid technology developed for helicopters and aircrafts, with principles gathered from the British Harrier jump jet, Moller’s new vehicle can carry four passengers at a top speed of over 600 kilometres per hour at an altitude of over 4 kilometres.
While the shape of the car has changed over time, the engine has also significantly evolved.
“Really, the key to the sky car is the power of the engine,” said Moller. “The engine is continually being improved. It gets better and better by the year.”
Moller’s engine is both powerful and safe. Like Indy formula racers, the Skycar runs on ethanol alcohol, which is produced from biomass.
The fuel is also more economical. It is roughly equivalent to the price of gasoline at the moment, though Moller is confident that when his invention reaches the level of mass production the price of ethanol fuel will drop significantly.
While the fuel may be more affordable, the M400 Skycar certainly isn’t-at least not at the moment. Costing roughly $500,000 US (nearly $582,000 Cdn) each, they command a hefty price tag, which the company believes will significantly diminish after mass production begins.
Once factories begin pumping out Skycars at a faster rate, the company expects the price tag for your brand new vehicle to drop to that of a “quality automobile,” or around $60,000 to $80,000 US ($70,000 to $93,000 Cdn).
Added to the price of the car will of course be your insurance premiums; at the moment Moller International’s insurance costs are so high that its prototype can only be flown while tethered to a large crane by a safety cord to protect it from “catastrophic failure.”
The inability to test the M400 without the safety tether is only one of the many challenges Moller has faced. The inventor remembers a number of times when his dream was on the cusp of oblivion, and he was on the edge of bankruptcy, with Moller International owing millions, the staff working without pay, and the bank threatening to close the shop’s doors.
Moller refers to his company’s recoveries in an almost spiritual way. “I’ve had a number of miracle recoveries,” he declared emphatically when speaking of the many last-minute opportunities he has seized to keep his company afloat and his dream alive. “The biggest triumph has been survival.”
Yet while the Skycar and the company have survived the financial perils, the newest challenge for Moller International is transforming its prototype M400 into a commercially marketable product. Partnerships have been formed with Pratt & Whitney for the production of the engine, though the company is still searching for an aerospace partner to produce the body. It is a search that is increasingly drawing their attention outside of North America.
“The US is not very good at the intermediary stage between invention and execution,” said Moller, who says the company has now been forced to examine development offers in both China and India.
Despite these difficulties, Moller is confident that one day very soon Skycars will revolutionize the way the world travels.
“I think we will be out there with vehicles by 2008,” said Moller confidently.
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