"The Enlightenment" wrote


Two vehicles using ducted fans are being built now in the USA and
Israel.

http://www.moller.com/

"Built" is a matter of opinion. Has Moller actually flown one of his 'cars'?
No. Tethered, unmanned, hover is as far as it's gotten.

http://www.urbanaero.com/Urban_Main.htm

They both have a plausible market. (The Israeli one seems the better
to me)

"Plausible market"? How so? 'Driving down to your neighborhood vertiport'
and toodling off to work? HA. The average person can't reliably handle 2D
movement, much less 3D.
Why haven't personal helicopters 'taken off'?

Moller VP says this about saucer shapes:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/me...cars-0302.html
"We still have it here, " Moller VP Jack Allison says about the M200X. "It's
a good test vehicle for part of the technology, but it's not a very
practical vehicle. A saucer's not a very practical shape for aerodynamic
flight and transporting people and things. It's good for takeoff and
landing."

Pics of the M200X and others he
http://www.laesieworks.com/ifo/lib/moller.html


The old FW-VTOL concept seems as good as the above two.

Exactly!

Pete