Moller International has signed an agreement with electrical vehicle developer ZAP to pursue jointly advanced transport, including the Moller M400 Skycar. Separately, Moller has reopened its orderbook for the M400 "flying car", after a three-year programme delay. An M400X prototype recently completed tethered hover tests at the company's Davis, California, plant, and three more vehicles are to be completed by the middle of 2003.
ZAP will help market the M400 and some of the technologies developed for it. Moller has developed a version of the Wankel rotary engine that ZAP is looking to incorporate in other environmentally friendly transport concepts.
Moller president Paul Moller believes the four-seat Skycar will revolutionise personal transport. The vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) machine, about the same size as a car, would have a maximum speed of 330kt (610km/h) and a range of 1,450km (780nm). The 1,090kg (2,400lb) M400 Skycar would lift 340kg to an operational ceiling of 29,000ft (8,850m). It would also be qualified to travel short distances on the ground as an automobile. Moller claims the M400 can achieve 12km/litre (28 miles/USgal) fuel consumption.
Moller is aiming for M400 certification within three years. So far 100 customers have paid refundable $5,000 deposits for the M400 and, following the suspension of order taking as the programme slipped, the books were reopened this month. "Initial examples will cost about $1 million," says Moller, but volume production could cut the price to around $200,000. Moller also sees potential markets in border patrol, police work and search and rescue activities.
The airframe is constructed of carbonfibre composites, and the aircraft uses eight 200kW (150hp) aluminium rotary engines, driving four lift fans fitted with thrust-directing vanes, which can be tilted to transition the aircraft from horizontal to vertical flight. Moller is also investigating single-seat and six-seat designs.
Source: Flight International
