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It’s been 30 years of this BS. Moller has never gotten this thing to work right and this contraption looks like a joke. And what is the crane for?
#1, John, If you were a test pilot and had the option of a crane for this contraption, would you use it? Nobody gave me a safety net in my first aerobatics solo. Hey — want a ride in a Stearman with the R-985 radial conversion?
Here’s one of my old airports, you might remember the Piper Cub. 🙂 Nice pictures of a Stearman with the big radial. And check out the Pitts Special.
http://mysite.verizon.net/imccomic/collinco/aerocnty.htm
http://www.moller.com/
The crane, of course, is to keep the pilot from dying when the skycar fails.
Moller is never going to make this work. Every few years, he suckers a new bunch of investors to hand over their cash, and then he works on it, does a demo, and then starts all over again. If you want to know the facts about Moller, check out the SEC case against him.
http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp17987.htm
It doesn’t look very safe or stable to me.
His Skycar doesn’t fly but it sure looks cool.
Judging by the cars in the parking lot, the video cameras and the clothing worn by the audience, I would say this vid was shot back in the late 80s. Seems to me if it were ready for production they would have a new video of the contraption. I would also think that a CRANE (that obviously slows the saucers decent several times) would not be necessary for a production model.
I think the only thing Moller has ‘production’ ready is a new(er) website and a new pdf full of bullshit.
I gotta admit – 20 seconds of the video and I was outta there.
X-files coulda done better
What’s the MPG?
Moller has been conning investors for a couple of decades with this pipe dream. He makes a crude mockup and uses fans to lift it off the ground in front of the cameras. Of course, it is tethered with a safety cable connected to a nearby crane at all times.
I find it interesting that he now is offering the M150. This can be seen here:
http://www.moller.com/m150.htm
If you look closely, they have simply chopped off the wings from a Bede BD-5 mini-jet (sold as a kitplane) and slapped on a couple of Moller’s ducted fans. See the original Bede for yourself:
http://www.bd5.com
Moller is a joke. It is just a scam to bilk unknowledgeable investors.
Gimme a break, you have no idea what you’re talking about.
The guy is a fanatical inventor; he believes in his idea and lives for it. Naturally he’s gonna keep chasing that dream, however misguided it may be.
Con artists take the money and run – they don’t keep putting on the same show for decades, spending all their time pretending to be developing something. They make their score and vanish to someplace where there’s no extradition.
His idea may be all wet, or too early for it’s time – but as an inventor myself, I can tell you the man is sincere.
When you see him buy a Palm Beach mansion with investors’ money, or catch him wrecking a Ferrari, high on coke, accompanied by a hooker – THAT’S the shit scammers do with the money they’ve scammed. If they run out of money and come back to the well, they do it under another name, and push a completely different scam.
Moller is no more a con than Preston Tucker, Malcom Bricklin or Dick Rutan. Moller has had little success with his Big Ideas, like Tucker – who was also falsely accused of being a fraud. Bricklin had some success and Rutan a lot. That’s the only real difference between them, is how viable their ideas are. They’ve all been falsely accused of being crooks – usually by people who have zero imagination themselves…
Lauren,
I can imagine a working vertical takeoff “commuter” vehicle; in fact I have a great name for it – “Helicopter”. Too bad I don’t have $500k to buy one.
Anyone with a little engineering training, and the interest in thinking about how to make a viable flying machine, can recognize Moller for what he is.
Tucker, Bricklin, and Rutan all produced and sold real products that worked as advertised. Moller is only selling hot air.
Don’t forget Jim Bede and the BD-5 — “His poor execution of those plans, and the ultimate failure of the original BD-5 concept, should not obscure the many original and innovative aspects of this design.”
http://www.bd5.com/bd01001.htm
I want one of the three existing BD-5 jets: http://tinyurl.com/2eoxl9
what’s the name of the music?
Yeah, you right, BR, thanks. Smooth fergot about that boy…
So where do you stand on Mr. M? Slick-talking high-tech hustler or woefully misguided would-be visionary?
The music is Celestial Soda Pop by Ray Lynch
#15, Lauren, I’ve seen a lot of Moller’s work and his ideas are at the same time both fantastic and realistic. Unfortunately, the engine and engine computer tech just doesn’t seem to catch up quickly enough.
The fabrication technology is available for the fuselage, empennage, instrumentation, etc. Power’s the same problem that forced Jim Bede into bankruptcy — we need a larger power to weight ratio, but give Moller some credit, he’s made some great advances in that area.
IMHO, the US needs more visionaries like Moller and Burt Rutan. Edison found a way to make the lightbulb work — for guys like these, failure is not an option.
Rutan won the Ansari X Prize for his effort, perhaps he has a lot more backing than Moller. Sir Richard Branson (Virgin empire) and Burt Rutan have joined forces:
http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/
…and Edison is yet another one who was labeled a con artist in his time
Edison and Moller — the same? Har. Good one.
The same in the particular respect alluded to, yes. I’ll take “Inventors Who Were Called Out As Frauds” for $200, Alex.
And yes, John C, – le specialitĂ© de my particular maison is ‘good ones’ one might say… 🙂
Well, the flying saucer is cheap… but the crane will cost a bundle!