Moller's latest
design, the Skycar M400,
is designed to take off and land vertically, like a Harrier Jet, in small spaces. It can
reach speeds of 400 mph (644 kph), but will cruise at around 350 mph (563 kph),
and it has a range of 900 miles (1449 km). Gasoline, diesel, alcohol, kerosene
and propane can be used to fuel the Skycar, and its fuel mileage will be
comparable to that of a medium-sized car, getting 20 miles (32.2 km) to the
gallon. The initial cost of a Skycar will be about $1 million, but once it
begins to be mass produced that price could come down to as low as $60,000.
The
four-seat Skycar is powered by eight rotary engines that are housed inside four metal
housings, called nacelles, on the side of the vehicle. There are two engines in
each nacelle so that if one of the engines in one of the nacelle fails, the
other engine can sustain flight. The engines lift the craft with 720
horsepower, and then thrust the craft forward. The Wankel engine replaces
pistons of a conventional engine with a single triangular rotor spinning inside
an oval-shaped chamber, which creates compression and expansion as the rotor
turns. There are three combustion chambers in the Wankel, with a crankshaft
between them.
To
make the Skycar safe and available to the general public, it will be completely
controlled by computers using Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, which Moller calls a
fly-by-wire system. In case of an accident, the vehicle will release a
parachute and airbags, internally and externally, to cushion the impact of the
crash.
The CityHawk is similar to the Skycar and SkyRider
in that it also takes off and lands vertically. However, there are some key
differences. The CityHawk will be powered by fans that are driven by four internal combustion engines.
Much like in the Skycar, this redundancy of engines will allow the vehicle to
land even if one of the engines is lost. The CityHawk is about the size of a
Chevy Surburban, and will have cruising speeds of 90 to 100 miles per hour (145
to 161 kph). CityHawk developers say that it could be used as an air taxi, for
news gathering and for traffic control.
The
mass availability of flying cars could be very exciting or very scary,
depending on how you look at it. If proper safeguards are put in place, they
could be the answer to our ever-worsening traffic jams. Flying cars that can
travel at hundreds of miles per hour would not only cut that rush hour commute
to a few minutes, but it would allow us to live hundreds of miles farther from
work and still make it to the office faster than by road-bound cars today.
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