Moller developing flying Ferrari 599 GTB... seriously
Click above for more shots of the Moller Autovolanter concept
The lure of the flying car is just too great for Moller International, a company best known for its SkyCar prototype and not actually producing a real flying vehicle for sale despite being around for some 25 years. Its latest tease is adapting the body shell of a Ferrari 599 GTB for use as a flying vehicle. Called the Autovolanter, this 599 GTB that's freed from the shackles of Earth is capable of vertical take-offs and landings thanks to a hybrid powertrain comprised of rotary engines and electric motors. The vehicle, proposed by a wealthy Russian businessman who'd apparently like to bypass Moscow's busy traffic with style, has already gone through small-scale testing and Moller seems rather pleased with the results.
Initial goals for the Autovolanter are a 150-mile range on the ground, with 40 of those coming from battery power alone, and 75 miles of airborne flight at high speeds. So the Autovolanter is basically a flying Chevy Volt based on a Ferrari. To make it a reality, the vehicle would need 800 horsepower... no problem, right? Oh yeah, and Moller needs around $5 million for continued development. Word is they're currently seeking more wealthy Russian businessmen who apparently have no sense.Gallery: Moller Autovolanter
[Source: Moller]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Torrent 2:34PM (9/11/2008)
This would have been more interesting if it was a Honda Pilot.
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Flashpoint 3:11PM (9/11/2008)
I'm a Lamborghini/ Buggati man. This is the first and only Ferrari I've ever found mildly interesting.
Inventor 12:03PM (9/14/2008)
All those that have posted their comments have made my day! First I have smiled in awhile, for the humor is pretty good! I do have to say that it is highly probable that you or we will in our life time have cars that do indeed fly or better yet the operable term would be to hover. I can say personally that I have built back in the 70's an object that would lift and hover with ease and move in any direction I wanted it to go, also could make it stop pretty quick. The University where I did this and I went to the U.S. Patent and Trade Mark Office to obtain a Patent only to find that back in the late forties someone else had done the same. The system has no moving parts per say except for the controls. Once someone figures out the energy side of the equation you will see this in reality. Atomic energy is not the answer nor jet fuel or gasoline. Scientist around the world have been working on the solution to the creation of energy for systems to use. The closest thing so far is the fuel cell yet doesn't produce the amount needed. If you have watched a program called NOVA in one of their series they talked about this subject. In the program they showed where they could deep freeze a metal object and then it would levitate. This is similar to the system but not it. I can not disclose what or how it works. I can say with certainty that once the energy production side of the equation is figured out, star travel just like in Star Wars will be here.
Brent 2:35PM (9/11/2008)
Flying cars will never happen. Waste of time and money.
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ugg.tryptophan 5:25PM (9/11/2008)
someone probably said the same thing a hundred years ago about cars
Randy915 5:57PM (9/11/2008)
Let's train people to drive better first before handing them flying car licenses...
Brent 6:54PM (9/11/2008)
ugg.tryptophan -
I don't think you understand. Innovation comes with divergence and not convergence. That is why we have airplanes and cars.
tankd0g 7:42PM (9/11/2008)
That's what they said 25 years ago when this guy embarked on this money sucking Odyssey.
wumpus 8:01PM (9/11/2008)
@ugg. I think that putting motors on horses would be a better analogy. I want a plane in the garage, we can't even make a car-boat hybrid, why bother with a car-plane?
PJ 9:28PM (9/11/2008)
Flying cars will happen because they don't require a resource-sucking, immaculately maintained, ever-expanding infrastructure to roll upon. It won't seem so zany after human drivers are taken out of the personal-transportation equation, as they surely will be in another 100 years.
dan 10:42AM (9/14/2008)
Where have you been brent???? Look up history. Flying cars have been real since the 30/40s. NOW if you want to talk practical, thats a differant story. Muller wants to build a vtol. WAY harder than just a flying car.
Dave 2:37PM (9/11/2008)
I've been in Moscow traffic...
I'm not a rich millionaire by far but this is needed there!
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Yar 2:38PM (9/11/2008)
So I'm guessing Chevy is developing a Stinger missile system for the next ZR1?
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Kevin White 2:43PM (9/11/2008)
Flying personal transportation vehicles will happen, but not in the modern era. I'm 34 years old. Maybe when I'm 94 they'll be here.
In the meantime, this post looks and reads a lot like one you'd see on April 1st...
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Copperhead 2:50PM (9/13/2008)
Yaya, that's what they said 60 years ago. Don't you think that, if flying cars would be feasible, we'd have them by now?
P.S.: Ever watched Fritz Lang's Metropolis? See?
tenfifteen 3:01PM (9/11/2008)
Good thing the caption says "composite image." I would've never been able to tell that was a 1:24 scale model otherwise. :|
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Cameron 10:47PM (9/11/2008)
Seriously.
Worst. Photoshop. Ever.
Jellodyne 2:52PM (9/11/2008)
I literally LOL'd. Paul Moller better watch himself, fleece some of those russians and he could wake up dead.
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Red 3:22PM (9/11/2008)
If you're dead and don't believe in the afterlife, can you truly wake up?
KazooCar 3:26PM (9/11/2008)
CJ: How the hell do you wake up dead?
Mahalik: Cause' you're alive when you go to sleep.
CJ: So you're telling me you can go to bed dead and wake up alive?
Mahalik: You can't go to bed dead! That sh*t would've been redundant.
CJ: No it would'nt cause' you can go to bed and not be dead, and you can die and not be in the bed.
Mahalik: But you are in the bed. That's how you wake up dead in the first place fool!
CJ: Damn! that's some quantum sh*t right there man! You should be teaching classes!