"Flying Taxi" inventor killed in crash | Hacker News Reader

"Flying Taxi" inventor killed in crash

thestar.com.my

19 pointsca98am798 comments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCEN_Jetpod

Some generated concept pictures:

http://www.fahad.com/pics/avcen_jetpod_lrg.png

http://airvoila.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/el-avcen-jetp...

Thanks for digging that up. That was my first question: what kind of vehicle is this? The article didn't go into much detail.

My first thought too. Strange how they went into detail about the guy scooping up shrimps to feed his fish, but almost nothing on the aircraft.

You might want to try other flying cars instead:

# Moller http://www.moller.com/

# Terrafugia http://www.terrafugia.com

# Volante http://www.volanteaircraft.com/

Moller is my favorite.

the Moller skycar is either the longest running investor scam in history or something brilliant ahead of its time, I still can't decide which after following them for several years.

See here for some more info on the fraud claims:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_Skycar_M400

Every couple of years the Moller skycar appears on the news as if it was some new advancement in car technology and we seem so much closer to flying cars. I laugh whenever I see it.

Hey, they were the pioneers and they wanted to build a real flaying car not just a plane with foldable wings. It's almost done. It's already flying in contrast to the Jetpod that plummets. That's why it took so long.

The jetpod was actually flying, the skycar has never done anything other then 'tethered' flight, which means as much as flying at the end of a chunk of chain in case something goes wrong.

This video has been used to claim that the skycar is nearly operational:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw

But in fact there is a large crane in the background that the skycar is tethered to.

The jetpod, in contrast went up to about 500-700 feet, then crashed according to reports. So, it was actually flying and unfortunately suffered an engine issue in the left hand side engine.

The SkyCar has been 'almost done' for as long as I can remember.

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