Is a Flying Ferrari in Our Future?

Weird? Just a bit, but at least California-based Moller International is beginning its flying car prototype with good stock. The test mule is a Ferrari 599 GTB, or at least a scale model of one, and Moller insists that the end result is workable and has production potential.

Then again, this isn’t the first of such projects undertaken by Paul Moller and the company bearing his name. He’s been developing the flying car since the early ‘80s, and has yet to have his dream take flight. Two other creations include the Moller M200 flying saucer and the M400 Sky Car, both of which have received plenty of press on their way to obscurity.

Moller hopes to have a life-size prototype of the Autovolanter flying soon, thanks to a wealthy Russian businessman who apparently wants to commute to his Moscow office quicker than his competitors, in the style he’s become accustomed to. The car, says Moller, will be able to fly 75 miles without refueling, and travel by ground for a total of 150 miles, giving it the range necessary for short-range commuting. This in mind, it can’t be a plane only flyable by specially trained pilots, but rather needs to be easy enough to manage by an occasional weekend pilot.

The Autovolanter scale prototype shows helicopter-like blades enclosed within the car’s “fuselage” for vertical lift, similar in principal to Britain’s Harrier fighter jet or more recently, the Rolls-Royce LiftFan and 3 Bearing Swivel Module (3BSM) that provides the vertical lift capability for the EU’s Joint Strike Fighter, otherwise known as Eurofighter. While it looks as though the Autovolanter would get some vertical takeoff and landing capability it’s more likely these fans are positioned to increase in-flight stability and allow greater computer control. The car-plane will also feature a large wing folded over its backside when not in use.

Surprisingly, only 800-horsepower is needed to achieve flight, says Moller, and while such power should be possible via a tightly sprung version of Ferrari’s V12, the engine simply weighs too much to work. Rather, the Autovolanter incorporates a hybrid powertrain featuring a rotary gasoline engine making approximately 350-horsepower and an electric motor developing about 500-horsepower,

Just like one of Ferrari’s Formula One cars the Autovolanter is limited by fuel restraints, only instead of going a few more laps on a fully filled tank the car-plane requires just the right balance of fuel on board, as the more it carries the heavier it becomes and resultantly its range shortens. Increasing consumption further, the added weight of excess fuel means that it needs more to get airborne.

While the idea is wonderful in a George Jetson meets Enzo sort of way, news on the wire suggests Moller’s dream may remain just that if considerable funding (approximately $5 million) doesn’t intervene. Then again, even if Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, WaMu and A.I.G. are no longer in the hunt to underwrite the project, there just might be a wealthy Middle-Eastern sheik needing a flying Ferrari for his personal militia to go along with that aforementioned wealthy Russian businessman. Keep your fingers crossed Paul.