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California Company Starts Making Flying Saucers
Fox News ^ | Aug 2, 2007 | Foxnews.com

Posted on 08/02/2007 3:47:19 PM PDT by Kevmo

A flying saucer that glides 10 feet off the ground and carries two passengers has gone into commercial production.

Moller International, based in Davis, Calif., has begun to manufacture parts for its Jetsons-like personal flying pod, the M200G Volantor.

The M200G is the size of a small car and is designed to take off and land vertically.

• Click here to see a video of an M200 prototype in action.

Company founder Paul Moller, in a press release, called the craft "the ultimate off-road vehicle" as it is able to travel over any surface.

"It's not a hovercraft, although its operation is just as easy," said Moller, a retired professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California at Davis. "You can speed over rocks, swampland, fences or log-infested waterways with ease, because you're not limited by the surface."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aerospace; callingartbell; flyingsaucer; m200g; moller; skycar; transportation; vtol
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To: stm

Lots of people think I have a good sense of humor about many things depending on the context.

Problem is,

the constant derision hereon re the topic prevents/turns off over 100 fellow FREEPERS from having a serious discussion about the topic.

I’m exceedingly tired of seeing that stolen from us by such attitudes.


41 posted on 08/02/2007 6:35:00 PM PDT by Quix (GOD ALONE IS GOD; WORTHY; PAID THE PRICE; IS COMING AGAIN; KNOWS ALL; IS LOVING; IS ALTOGETHER GOOD)
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To: devolve

Wanna see something cool? Perform a Google search on “Project Silverbug”.


42 posted on 08/02/2007 6:38:10 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four fried chickens and a coke)
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To: John Jamieson

Uhhhh, what planet are we on?

What stock?

To what end?

How much have you invested?


43 posted on 08/02/2007 6:38:14 PM PDT by Quix (GOD ALONE IS GOD; WORTHY; PAID THE PRICE; IS COMING AGAIN; KNOWS ALL; IS LOVING; IS ALTOGETHER GOOD)
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To: Kevmo
They’re claiming to be in production

I can place my free energy machine in production tomorrow. Doesn't mean it will produce free energy. This thing is, and always has been, a pipe dream. I taught aerodynamics at Cal Poly in SLO in the late 1960's. I can tell you this thing is not about aerodynamics, it is pure thrust and a delicate balancing act. It is dynamically unstable and impossible to build in enough backup systems to be safe. He can not even build a remote controlled model of this thing that will fly.

44 posted on 08/02/2007 6:38:23 PM PDT by Ben Mugged (Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.)
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To: devolve

[That’s what I wuz thinking of]

Lol, no name on it and you know how I protect my gifs!

Think of all the years they have been talking of ‘personal’ flying machines of any sort.

Can you just imagine everyone taking off into the airways? Massive chaos!


45 posted on 08/02/2007 6:42:20 PM PDT by potlatch (MIZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_MIKAZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_MAZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_))
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To: potlatch; Army Air Corps

.

The “Flying Pancake” flew, was fast, short takeoff - leaped into the air

Huge props, high rake with incredibly high front landing gear
Military dropped it

“Projuect Silverbug”

“THC” has great footage on very early Russkie and German jets and rocket powered aircraft

They have had a number of highway pileups recently

Personal air-taxis would be insane
Air traffic, air controllers, etc.

Oh what fun

JFK Jr, - small aircraft
John Denver - experimental

Not fer moi!

Those flying saucers look like a model I made of pine painted silver with a half of a vet’s soluble capsule cut down for the pilot’s dome-cockpit in easly HS

I knew then it would be unstable

Except for throwing to dogs

Or for Odd Job and Steed to adapt into their hats!


46 posted on 08/02/2007 7:04:54 PM PDT by devolve ( _Google-Illegals_Killed_25_Americans_Each_Day _A_Mex_Illegal_Alien_Sold_911_Terrorists_IDs_)
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To: Kevmo

If you could actually make it go back and forth down the field with anything that resembles control enough to drive it somewhere........then maybe.


47 posted on 08/02/2007 7:06:46 PM PDT by badpacifist (If your ass won't move there may be an angel in the way .... Numbers 22:21-34)
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To: Kevmo

This guys flying rig was more low tech.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288809,00.html


48 posted on 08/02/2007 7:08:46 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Never bring a knife to a gun fight, or a Democrat to do serious work...)
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To: devolve

[Personal air-taxis would be insane]

Not just for them either! They would be crashing and dropping on us like flys!

My kids had a Jetsons craft toy, think is it still in the attic. Looks just like my gif - or rather, my gif looks just like it, lol.


49 posted on 08/02/2007 7:14:06 PM PDT by potlatch (MIZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_MIKAZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_MAZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_))
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To: potlatch

.

Neil Armstrongs’s tests on controlling a “Moon Lander” were on a jet powered open gizmo

Armstrong almost lost it in one video - but he was a heck of a pilot

But he came thru in controlling it running out of fuel and finally finding a safe moon site to land on


50 posted on 08/02/2007 7:18:54 PM PDT by devolve ( _Google-Illegals_Killed_25_Americans_Each_Day _A_Mex_Illegal_Alien_Sold_911_Terrorists_IDs_)
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To: devolve

[Armstrong almost lost it in one video]

I’m sure I watched some of those myself at the time but don’t recall much about them. Just the moon landing.

My one brother lived in the same subdivision as several of the astronauts back then.


51 posted on 08/02/2007 7:24:09 PM PDT by potlatch (MIZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_MIKAZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_MAZARU_ooo_‹(•¿•)›_ooo_))
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To: Kevmo

I remember this company on the front of Popular Science Magazine about 20-25 years ago. It was more of a hovercraft that I think used several lawn mower engines. The prototype would get 2-3 feet off the ground. Pretty cool then and now.


52 posted on 08/02/2007 7:55:59 PM PDT by tang-soo (Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks - Read Daniel Chapter 9)
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To: Quix

That would be stock in Moller.


53 posted on 08/02/2007 8:47:15 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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Wild thing, you make my heart sing.

http://www.members.tripod.com/uforeview/nazi2.html


54 posted on 08/02/2007 9:02:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Profile updated Thursday, August 2, 2007. https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: John Jamieson

Ahhhh. So have you invested in it?


55 posted on 08/02/2007 9:20:21 PM PDT by Quix (GOD ALONE IS GOD; WORTHY; PAID THE PRICE; IS COMING AGAIN; KNOWS ALL; IS LOVING; IS ALTOGETHER GOOD)
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To: Kevmo

Moller International, based in Davis, Calif., has begun to manufacture parts for its Jetsons-like personal flying pod, the M200G Volantor.


I’ll be impressed when it can be folded up to wallet size and placed in the pocket.


56 posted on 08/02/2007 9:27:24 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: Quix

I’ll invest just as soon as my 30 mil arrives from Nigeria.


57 posted on 08/03/2007 10:37:14 AM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: John Jamieson

Ahhhhh.


58 posted on 08/03/2007 3:18:52 PM PDT by Quix (GOD ALONE IS GOD; WORTHY; PAID THE PRICE; IS COMING AGAIN; KNOWS ALL; IS LOVING; IS ALTOGETHER GOOD)
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To: Ben Mugged

I taught aerodynamics at Cal Poly in SLO in the late 1960’s.
***Cool, that means you were one of Burt Rutan’s professors. I was accepted into the Cal Poly SLO aero program in the early 90’s but decided against moving forward because NONE of my friends who were graduating with aero degrees were getting jobs in the field. I switched to electrical.

Please note my comment in post # 1, which anticipated Freepers throwing darts at Moller.


59 posted on 08/13/2007 12:21:45 PM PDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
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To: devolve

That project was a red herring to keep the Russians thinking that the plans they stole were worthless. It worked.

Source:
“Intercetteli Senza Sparare” written originally in Italian by Renato Vesco.


60 posted on 08/13/2007 12:24:54 PM PDT by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
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