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- LONDON - A U.S. aviation company is planning to test a revolutionary
new "flying car'' that will hover above the ground and could change
the way people travel in the future.
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- Moller International, of California,
plans to take the so-called Skycar on its maiden journey in the next few
weeks and could reveal it to the press by the end of the year, New Scientist
magazine said Wednesday.
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- The Batmobile shaped vehicle will seat
four people, do about five miles per liter of gas, have a top speed of
over 370 miles per hour and will take off and land vertically.
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- "On its first flight, the Skycar
will rise to a height of two meters (six feet) or so, hover for one minute
and then land, just like a Harrier jump jet,'' the magazine said.
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- "Later flights will be more ambitious.
Once the aircraft receives a license from the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) anyone with a pilot's license will be able to fly one in the U.S.,''
it said.
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- The vehicle, which will be hand-built
and cost about $1 million, is the brainchild of Paul Moller, who founded
the company. He has been working on the project for 30 years.
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- The car uses two rotary engines and fans
placed inside streamlined housings known as nacelles. The fans inside the
nacelles create an airflow that generates thrust. Each four-passenger Skycar
will have four nacelles to provide the power.
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- "At the rear of each nacelle is
a set of vanes that can be angled downwards to generate lift as well as
forward thrust,'' the magazine said.
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- Once the design is perfected and mass
produced, Moller estimates it could cost about $60,000.
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- "The first Skycars will be fly-by-wire
vehicles. In other words, while the pilot tells the craft what to do, a
computer will actually do the flying, taking the vehicle's rate of turn,
and altitude into account when it responds to instructions,'' the magazine
said.
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