Toronto Star

Software, GPS give flying car fresh momentum
And a Canadian is idea's big dreamer
Paul Moller worked on Avrocar saucer


TYLER HAMILTON
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

A Canadian transplanted to California could become the first person to
turn the 86-year-old dream of "the flying car" into a commercial
reality.

Paul Moller, founder and president of Davis, Calif.-based Moller
International Inc., has spent more than 50 years of his life trying to
drive his vision up and forward.

Next spring, Moller — who turned 67 last Thursday — plans to test fly
his M400 Skycar over a man-made lake in front of investors, reporters,
and vehicle manufacturers from around the world.

The candy-apple red Skycar is a "volantor," meaning it can take off
and land vertically. Moller's company Web site says it all: "From your
garage to your destination, the M400 Skycar can cruise comfortably at
350+ mph and achieve up to 28 miles per gallon.

"No traffic, no red lights, no speeding tickets. Just quiet direct
transportation from point A to point B in a fraction of the time."

If the spring demo works, it could be the prototype's major step
toward commercial production.

A flying car, you say? Images that come to mind include Dick Van Dyke
in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, made by the people who brought you James
Bond.

Airborne autos also made appearances in the Jetsons, and sci-fi
classics such as Star Wars and Blade Runner.

Real-life pursuit of flying automobiles stretches back to 1917, when
aviation pioneer Glenn Curtiss unveiled something called the
Autoplane.

A nice try for its time, it never really took off. And while Henry
Ford's "sky flivver" did take off in 1928, production got nixed after
a friend of Ford's who was piloting one model died in a crash.

Nine years later, Waldo Waterman developed the Arrowbile — essentially
a car with detachable wings and a rear propeller. Waterman ran out of
money, as many inventors do, so the project eventually got its wings
clipped.

In 1946, Robert Fulton decided to switch gears on the concept. Instead
of sticking wings on a car, he decided to create a small plane with
detachable wings, prop and tail that could drive on roads. Called the
Airphibian, it was actually government-certified. But like Waterman,
Fulton ran out of funds.

The list goes on, and dozens of patents related to flying cars have
been filed over the years. These include the two-door ConvAirCar in
the 1940s, plagued by high cost and negative publicity surrounding the
crash of a prototype. Around the same time, Moulton Taylor was
developing the fibreglass Aerocar, another government-certified
creation that, at one point, caught the attention of Ford before
fading away into history.

Moller says past attempts were doomed to failure because their design
required a runway for takeoff.

"You can talk about a flying car, but it still typically involves an
airport, and that takes it out of the hands of 95 per cent of the
people," he says. "You really have to have something that can take off
vertically, and if it can, it's got to have this large amount of power
capability."

Perhaps the most significant development in this direction came in the
mid-1950s, when Avro Canada, makers of the famed Avro Arrow jet, won
Canadian and U.S. funding for development of the troop-carrying
Avrocar. The British were also interested in the project.

The Avrocar looked saucer-like, similar to the UFOs in Plan 9 From
Outer Space. It was 18-feet in diameter and three-feet thick. Three
turbojets powered a huge fan at the bottom-centre, giving it the
ability to rise vertically. It was designed to go nearly 500
kilometres per hour but never got past 60 km/h.

Around this time, Moller was a student at a Calgary trade school
working to get certified as an aircraft and engines mechanic. As part
of his program, he spent the summer of 1957 working at the Defence
Research Board outside of Quebec City, where he was first exposed to
the secret Avrocar program.

It wasn't Moller's first introduction to the "flying car" concept. As
a young boy he was fascinated by the way hummingbirds flew. At 15, on
his father's chicken farm outside Trail, B.C., Moller attempted to
build his own personal helicopter. His dad once used the tail rotor to
cool 100,000 chicken eggs when the power went out on the farm
incubator.

"In any case, the experience at the Defence Research Board allowed me
access to some of the technology," he says. After nine years and $10
million, the Avrocar failed to deliver on promises and got scrapped.

Shortly after his time with the government, Moller got a job at
Montreal-based Canadair Ltd. (acquired by Bombardier Inc. in 1986),
where he worked on missiles for the Avro Arrow fighter jet before the
politically sensitive project got cancelled and he was moved to
another position. While in Montreal, he decided to test "how smart or
dumb I was" by enrolling in graduate courses at McGill University in
1960, at the age of 23.

McGill was a turning point for Moller, who cites aeronautics professor
Barry Newman, who died recently, as "probably the most significant
player in my life." Moller just wanted to take a few courses, and
asked Newman for some enrolment advice. But the two had a "meeting of
the minds," and Newman managed to squeeze Moller into the school's
graduate program even though the young mechanic had no prerequisite
undergraduate experience.

Three years later, during which Moller spent his nights in Montreal
building a 6:1 model of a vertical-takeoff aircraft in his apartment,
the young visionary walked out of McGill with a PhD in aerodynamics.

"I learned a lot then about what was important for the final
aircraft," he says, adding that his experience with the Avrocar taught
him, among other things, what to avoid. "We realized if you want to go
fast you can't do it in a round shape. That's something Avro should
have known right off the bat, unless you're from outer space. It's got
to have an aerodynamic type of configuration."

Moller says he might have never left Canada had he found a teaching
job at the University of British Columbia. "Canada was good to me, I
owe a lot to Canada." But he graduated from McGill at an awkward time
of the year and the only job he could find was at the University of
California at Davis. There he taught 22 aeronautical engineering
courses between 1963 and 1975. He has called California his home ever
since.

Real work on the Skycar concept began in 1965 when Moller developed
the XM-2, a wobbly, two-engine hovering aircraft that got mere inches
from the ground and couldn't go anywhere else. But his pursuit of a
mass-market volantor only gained momentum, and through the years he
has managed to raise over $75 million (More than $200 million adjusted
for inflation) and build several prototypes toward realizing his goal.

"If you've got a little imagination it's not hard to get there," he
says, though struggles at times to raise money often sidetracked his
efforts. He was required to develop and sell other products, such as
his popular motorcycle SuperTrapp muffler, to fund the project. "It
wasn't a straight path."

The latest incarnation of the Skycar is the M400, built with eight
engines that swivel 45 degrees in the transition from vertical lift to
horizontal thrust. It's a slick-looking machine, made to wow an
audience that wants to believe.

Moller says there's not as much controversy anymore over whether
Skycar will work. Skeptics have since turned their attention to the
question of safety and infrastructure, and whether the world is ready
to build highways in the sky and risk having flying cars crash into
each other or lose power and fall through residential rooftops.

"There are these unbelievably supportive people out there, and then
there are these naysayers that are just as adamant in another
extreme," he says. "It's surprising how some people, with all we've
accomplished in the last 10 years, they still have problems
envisioning a highway in the sky."

In his view, it can all be handled with some sophisticated software,
GPS satellites, and intelligent systems that automate driving and
traffic logistics. Such a complex system of air traffic management
would make current air-traffic control systems look simple, and no
doubt, we're still decades away from a society of three-dimensional
driving.

That said, well-off people who buy luxury items today are likely to be
the first to place a Skycar order. Don't be surprised if California
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who owns several military-style
Hummers, puts down his $100,000 deposit on the first generation of
Skycar, which is expected to cost $1 million when available.

First, however, Moller needs to successfully fly the M400 next spring.
Last fall, the machine had its first unmanned flight, done with a
remote control and kept in position by safety lines. With the manned
test, Moller has made every effort to minimize the danger.

Not that he's averse to risk. "I have broken everything," he says,
referring to his days as Canadian national go-cart champion, playing
hockey in Montreal, riding motorcycles in California and playing
racket ball. He's broken his neck, dislocated his jaw, and busted his
ankle, among other fractures.

But Moller International has a 30-year track record of safe test
flights, and the founder wants to keep it that way.

Besides, with talks going on behind the scenes with Bombardier,
General Electric, and other military manufacturers that could
potentially license his technology, it's best to have a clean show.

Not getting any younger, Moller is determined to make it happen. "Our
position is good if we can just convince the rest of the world to come
along."