Paul Moller on the Skycar

28/01/2009 | By TED

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Putting the average human-being behind the wheel of an automobile is quite often a recipe for disaster, attributed to adding generous splashes of incompetence and stupidity into the mix. The New Economy was intrigued upon hearing of the SkyCar, Paul Moller's vision of travel for the future, where we are placed up to 25,000 feet higher and travel up to 100 times faster. Thankfully, however, Moller envisions a vehicle which is entirely self-piloted.

Paul Moller talks about the future of personal air travel -- the marriage of autos and flight that will give us true freedom to travel off-road. He shows two things he's working on: the Moller Skycar (a jet + car) and a passenger-friendly hovering disc.

About Paul Moller

With a team of engineers, Paul Moller works on the Skycar, a combination car and jet, as well as the M200, a saucer-shaped hovering car. He also develops next-generation engines to power these and other amazing vehicles.

Paul Moller is the president, CEO and chair of Moller International, a company devoted to engineering the combination of automobile and jet known as the Moller Skycar. His company also works on the M200, a low-flying disc, or volantor, that may go into production later in 2009. (As cool as it looks, the M200 has serious applications as a rescue vehicle.) A partner company, Freedom Motors, builds the Rotapower engine.

Moller developed the Aeronautical Engineering program at UC Davis while a professor there from 1963 to 1975. In 1972 he founded SuperTrapp Industries, and also led the group that developed the Davis Research Park Complex between 1975 and 1983. He's been working on VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) personal vehicles since the late 1960s.

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