UFO-like flying car for auction on eBay
Moller International is selling the mid-80s prototype of its UFO-like M200X on eBay, the first flying car to successfully be maneuvered and driven by a pilot with no formal training, and which has apparently completed over 200 successful manned and unmanned demonstrations since 1989.
And if that's not enough to get you to drop almost $19k (with reserve not met), check out this video of the M200X's famous 1989 test flight. Forget the car, I want to buy the rights to that song!
Moller 200X Auction [eBay via Gizmodo]
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Wow, that's quite a tune. So, this thing's tethered, right? Or is that giant crane in the background just a coincidence of some sort?
BTW, the song is called Celestial Soda Pop by Ray Lynch. The album is called Deep Breakfast and was released in 1984. Fun stuff. I remember listening to it on the "Hearts of Space" radio show as a teenager.
Yes, it's tethered. Look at the first landing (at 2:00, or 7:00 on the convenient timecode).
But it appears to just be a safety thing. The tether is slack the whole time.
Thank you #2! I was bopping along totally unable to remember!
James Mays new series (Big Idea, BBC2 in the UK) profiled Moller just last week, awesome tech involved (Wankel engines!).
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10440533/1/fast-money-pops-and-drops-ebay-no-way.html?puc=googlefi&cm_ven=GOOGLEFI&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA
With eBay dropping in analysts' eyes. Do you think they have become a medium for just publicity? And sites that are already present [Amazon] are where people are taking their E-dollars to? And new players [Wigix] sees this as a good opportunity? It sure seems like it!
That is the song I used to use to get me through my all night drives through the mountains in BC. Haven't heard it in years.
Good luck meeting the reserve. It's mass-produced price would be 500K. It was never mass-produced. It's probably more expensive than that.
Ah, Ray Lynch. Back when my mom worked at Bookstop back in the eighties, they had that on the tapedeck ALL DAY LONG.
I gave her a copy of Deep Breakfast a couple of years ago as a gag gift. She didn't throw it at me, and for that I'm grateful.
OMG! That brings me back. I was a huge fan of "Hearts of Space" with "Timotheo and Anna". I was both amazed and surprised ....oh, and also pleased to see that the show is still around; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_of_Space
I haven't listened to it since forever so I don't know what it's like now but I suppose it doesn't matter. You can never go back but you can download the past.
I spoke with Moller in the mid-'90s. Very interesting guy. It's a shame he's selling this prototype.
@ Ghede:
Its mass-produced price could be much lower, depending on how many were being sold. If NASA had put as much behind this project as, say, regrettably and senselessly doomed space missions, we might have flying cars by now.
It would require a great deal in terms of infrastructure, gearing the skies for highway-like travel, making certain that the skycars were synchronously crash-proofed by way of GPS and optical imaging, but it would be worth it. I haven't read any of the specs on the newest machines, but the prototypes of the early 2000s I recall getting incredible gas mileage.
Imagine taking the family across the country in a matter of hours. We should be there already. Business trips are a cinch when you can take off from your backyard. Where does America get off making life harder for the upper-middle class?