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J
12-05-2005
11:04 AM ET (US)
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u gay
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Justin Johnson
12-05-2005
11:03 AM ET (US)
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What is your stock symbol?
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joahsd aso
12-05-2005
11:02 AM ET (US)
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when did the company go public?
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STEALTHY1  06-01-2005
04:47 PM ET (US)
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ARE YOU KIDDING ME?A FLYING CAR THAT IS AFFORDABLE HAS GOT TO BE A DREAM.
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robertl30 09-24-2002
10:44 PM ET (US)
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I hadn't realized how far back the flying car thing went.
Starting to remind me of the Freedom Ship http://www.freedomship.com project. Every so many months the website gets tweaked and the guy will get some new press. But the project never seems to move forward. I discovered this thing about 4 years ago. I'm _ready_ to sail. When does this thing leave? I could take my flying car to the giant barge ship.
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Jonathan Rouse 09-24-2002
05:39 PM ET (US)
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TimmyT - Sorry, I wasn't specific enough. Yes, some minor changes have been made to the site. None, however, that would convince me that we are any closer to having a flying car. Sorry for the strong language of my first post, I was just shocked that Cory hadn't seen Moller long ago (I'm positive the site has been up and essentially the same for at least a couple of years, if not more). When I first heard about it, it was with the same enthusiasm that Cory had in his post, and since then, nothing.
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Stefan Jones 09-24-2002
03:34 PM ET (US)
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Ditto Bob, Ernie, and Paul. I remember college friends being way enthusiastic about Moller's car in about 1984.
Every few years, Moller gets some press, pundits marvel that Air Cars are finally here (usual title of puff piece: "Tired of long commutes? Just FLY over traffic!"), and things go quiet again.
What was added to the story during the last flap: The cars will be automatic. They'll fly by wire. You don't actually drive it, you ride it. (That was pre-9/11, actually, and sounds like an even better idea today.)
I wish this guy well. I think air cars would be neat. But I'm not holding my breath.
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TimmyT 09-24-2002
02:05 PM ET (US)
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Jonathan, did you look at the site? From the news page:
"Letter from the President: September 2002
Dear Skycar Fans:
Our immediate flight program for the M400 calls for optimizing and continued reliability testing of the Skycar's automatic stability systems. We had a very pleasant surprise in a recent flight when a fuel problem caused one of the engines to essentially quit during the flight. The Skycar continued to fly in a controlled manner and was landed under vehicle control. With the lower powered engines we are presently using (single rather than double rotor) we had not expected our stability system to be able to handle this condition. In another flight we were able to precisely hover the Skycar in sizable gusting winds.
Flight Test Videos
The two Skycar activities that dominate our present efforts are designing and building a production version Skycar nacelle for testing with the larger engines. We have also hired an aircraft composite design consultant to assist us in moving from the present prototype M400 to the higher volume production model. We expect to build three of these fully tooled aircraft over the next 12 months."
September 2002 seems pretty recent to me.
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Bob R. Kenyon 09-24-2002
01:19 PM ET (US)
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Moller has been working on this at least since the '70's. How do I know? I had him for an Mechanical Engineering class at U.C. Davis in '78 or '79. In his class, we had a choice of working on either his hovercraft or a continuously variable transmission project installed in an old Austin America. I chose the car.
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ernie 09-24-2002
12:24 PM ET (US)
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Same here - been following the Moller work since high school. The best they can do is a quicktime clip of a static test where the nose lifts off the ground for 3 inches and the clip is over. Not saying he's a scam artist, but the car has looked IDENTICAL for a decade or so and does nothing more than it did way back then.
The vehicles he's made in the past do sorta fly, but they are all tethered by crane.
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tdaly 09-24-2002
12:24 PM ET (US)
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You can buy one at firebox.com for £324000
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Paul Leonard 09-24-2002
12:14 PM ET (US)
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Having been a faithful reader of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics, I can attest to the age of this. Every few years since I was in high-school (late-80s) there would be a cover story about flying cars, and Moller is always the star attraction, promising the RSN release of their product. I hope they actually build some product someday.
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robertl30 09-24-2002
11:59 AM ET (US)
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This IS so old. This was published in Wired more than a year ago I think. Maybe 2 years? Last year has moved pretty quick. A quick glance at the website doesn't reveal too much new.
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Cory Doctorow 09-24-2002
11:17 AM ET (US)
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Not true. They went public at the end of August.
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Jonathan Rouse 09-24-2002
11:08 AM ET (US)
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Sorry, Cory, this site is ancient, and as far as I can tell, there's been no change to the content there over the past couple of years. The Moller company has been promising the release of their flying car on this website for longer than I can remember, with no evidence of progress. I suspect it's a bid to attract capital or some such nonsense.
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