Yes. This will only ever be possible with gas powered engines. Paul Moller has been constantly improving his rotary engines which will be used for the Skycar once the motors are widely successful and he can source additional funding for the Skycar again. He has solved all of the typical problems with rotaries.
I was a champion of the Moller vehicle in the 1980s and even prepared an internal argument for why Boeing should invest in it. But 40 years have come and gone, and there is not much to show for it. So, as much as I like it, I have to put it in the category of "Some Day My Prince Will Come."
As for the electric stuff, developments are going full bore over an amazing range of potential competitors, but my own view is to think of them as equivalent to a helicopter with "Tesla" on the side. I expect charging delays and the inevitable passenger crash to put a crimp in the market.
I absolutely agree that this has taken a long time, but the back story is that he was attacked by the SEC and put under a gag order. This apparently caused the stock price to tank, which meant that the investors' virtually lost their money and everything ground to a halt.
But within the last couple of years, he has been able to get Freedom Motors making and selling engines and the hope is that this will eventually be able to fund the restart of development of his flying cars.
Here is a paper that Paul published advising against using batteries only:
This will never happen.
This is simply another investment hole for gullible liberals.
Yes. This will only ever be possible with gas powered engines. Paul Moller has been constantly improving his rotary engines which will be used for the Skycar once the motors are widely successful and he can source additional funding for the Skycar again. He has solved all of the typical problems with rotaries.
Here is a teaser of the engines:
From https://freedom-motors.com/freedom_tech.html
Patented intake and porting arrangement increases power by 50% verses OMC rotary engine of the same displacement.
Low cost patented approach to insulating the rotor bearing from the rotor.
Proprietary tip seals and rotor housing coating provides projected seal life of over 10,000 hours.
Intake and exhaust system tuned to achieve over 100% volumetric efficiency (using SuperTrapp® technology).
Patented composite coating has the following advantages:
Patented lubrication system eliminates either mixing oil with fuel (OMC design), or injecting oil into incoming air stream (Mazda design).
I was a champion of the Moller vehicle in the 1980s and even prepared an internal argument for why Boeing should invest in it. But 40 years have come and gone, and there is not much to show for it. So, as much as I like it, I have to put it in the category of "Some Day My Prince Will Come."
As for the electric stuff, developments are going full bore over an amazing range of potential competitors, but my own view is to think of them as equivalent to a helicopter with "Tesla" on the side. I expect charging delays and the inevitable passenger crash to put a crimp in the market.
I absolutely agree that this has taken a long time, but the back story is that he was attacked by the SEC and put under a gag order. This apparently caused the stock price to tank, which meant that the investors' virtually lost their money and everything ground to a halt.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180731181458/http://mis2003.org/
https://web.archive.org/web/20180731080105/http://mis2003.org/our_story.html
But within the last couple of years, he has been able to get Freedom Motors making and selling engines and the hope is that this will eventually be able to fund the restart of development of his flying cars.
Here is a paper that Paul published advising against using batteries only:
https://moller.com/brochures/Critique-of-Battery-Powered-Flying-Cars-7-28-17.pdf
Thanks for the backstory. Life is busy, but I had always wondered what happened with him.