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A Boeing 747 can easily carry over 300 passengers from LA to New York with one single tank! Seems more efficient to me. Or should someone ask what the size of the tank is? What is the fuel consumption per passenger?

Karsten

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people seem to have enough trouble driving in two axes, on paved roads. i can't imagine people driving in three axes driving on virtual roads in the sky.

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I did some looking up myself. And I still question the ability of this skycar to get a reasonable fuel mileage. Now, I am not a pilot, so please be patient. May conclusions may not be right.

A Cessna 150 (a older, small, single engine airplane) gets between 15-22 miles per gallon. A Cessna 172 uses 8 gallons of gas per hour. There is more data for those aircraft that is similar. I do not know how many people they can carry. The Cessna 150 may come equipped with a 100 horse power engine. These are SMALL aircraft that take of at a slow speed and cruise at a slow speed. The skycar is supposed to go 350 miles per hour. It is going to take off and land vertically, which means MUCH more fuel consumption than with the help of the lift of the wings. The skycar has four engines (as pictured), however maybe not all for forward motion.

In any case, if a small aircraft like the Cessna 150 gets only 15-22 mpg (or 0.066 to 0.045 gallons per mile per airplane) I cannot imagine how the pictured Skycar can be more efficient. On the Moller site they claim 20 miles per gallon. I want this measured with actual test flights. All I get to see on the site are hover tests.

Just because it says "ethanol" and because it takes off vertically does not make it more efficient or reasonable for day-to-day use. The Space Shuttle takes off vertically too and it burns (in parts) hydrogen to do that. Not a "clean" vehicle I dare say.

Karsten
http://www.polluteless.com

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