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BBC News reported yesterday on Moller International’s futuristic M200G skycar. It’s hard not to get excited about something that floats in mid-air and looks a bit like a flying saucer, but despite the BBC’s enthusiasm, we wonder whether skycars are really the answer to our earthly transport problems.
Moller’s website and the BBC both carry some shaky-looking videos of the M200G hovering in the air, but there isn’t much yet in the way of detail. Though the company says that the M200G can run on petrol, diesel or ethanol, it doesn’t say how many miles it can cover per gallon of fuel, or at what speed it can travel.
There’s a bit more information available on the M400 skycar, which should follow the M200G into production. Moller hopes to have it FAA certified by 31 December 2008. Its best fuel economy is expected to be around 20 miles per gallon, which sounds pretty competitive compared to the average US in-use fuel consumption of 21.5mpg.
However, more recent (2004) figures suggest the average US car is nudging 30mpg, and that the European average is at 43mpg or so.
The M400 is faster, redder, and a whole lot more exciting than a frugal supermini. But global warming and problems with oil, alternative energy and biofuels all make us wonder if, when it comes to skycars and flying saucers, the future has missed its chance.
While Moller’s Skycar’s are wonderfully exciting - the world of the Jetsons meets the future I read about in Superboy comics in the 1960s - any technology that requires the substantial amounts of power that are needed to keep a Skycar in the air is going to be fuel-hungry. Until that issue can be solved - and other technical challenges (imagine flying along Brighton seafront in a November gale!) - the jury’s out.
My enthusiastic vote for relatively low-impact, urban travel goes to the humble electric bicycle. The best of these don’t give pedal-free power but supplement the energy expended by pedalling to a factor of between 1:1 to 1:4, so you can still get some exercise.
Check out http://www.atob.org.uk for more info (folks who are colour blind should give thanks now…). Not sure how up-to-date the reviews are though, but it’s worth starting here.