Norman DeBoer wrote:

Moller claims to have a light weight rotary engine but I don't think it
will ever go into production. People on here are working on a light weight
version of the one rotor Mazda with aluminum end housings but that could
be some time away.

Paul Lamar

Paul:

As I understand you live in California, how about flying over to Davis when
it is convenient and check out what if any thing is happening at Moller?
Most of us are not even close to California and the Moller Website has not
been updated for months!

Norman DeBoer

Hey, I understand scepticism about Moller, but they *have* updated their
website recently:

Here is the text from http://www.moller.com/news/

Letter from the President, July 2002

Dear Skycarâ Fans:

It is always difficult to know when to stop and record this message. It
seems that every day that goes by we have something to report, but know that
tomorrow will bring even more exciting results. I am constantly tempted to
put this off ³just one more day² so that we can give you a message that
contains a more dramatic summary of our achievements.

Skycar News
We have made remarkable progress with the Skycar in the last few days. The
most significant achievement has been learning how to deal with tethered
flights. On one hand tethers are good because if you have a problem in
flight the tethers often eliminate or significantly reduce the consequences.
Unfortunately, they can also make flying the Skycar extremely difficult. We
recently determined that our ground tethers were over-constraining the
vehicle during both above-ground and in ground effect lift-off tests. We
have devised a new set of tethers and eliminated others entirely to give us
more freedom during take off. This has allowed us to obtain several
lift-offs with significantly lower power levels. Lift off now occurs with
engines running at ~6500 RPM rather than over 7000 RPM. In addition to the
significant increase in reserve power, the drop in nominal operating range
ensures the engines will run cooler and require less frequent maintenance.
We have had numerous flights out of ground effect with flight durations
continuing to increase. We expect to issue a press release within the next
two to three weeks. You can view a recent flight video segment under the
media section of our web site.

Aerobot Highlights
Moller International is proceeding with the California Transportation
Department (CALTRANS) Bridge Inspection Aerobot. We have the design nearly
complete and many of the components fabricated or procured. The main
components yet to be received are the main propulsion motors. We are using a
slightly modified, off-the-shelf motor that will be economical should we go
into production of this size range of Aerobot.

Engine Update
Moller International and Freedom Motors have entered into a cooperative
development and production plan with a recreational product manufacturer for
the 650cc series Rotapower engines. More details on this agreement will be
provided in the next few weeks.

Yours truly,

Paul S. Moller

Truly? :-)

Paul Lamar
 
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