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Paul Moller will go down in history, of that there is no doubt. But whether he appears in the annals as a
hopeful failure or as the father of a brand new transit system will depend on
FAA tests scheduled for 1997. He has been working on his concept since 1960 and
has had a completed prototype available for inspection since 1989. Called the
Volantor M200X, its success depends on engines that have a sufficient power to
weight ratio to lift the machine and two passengers aloft. This protoype has
already made over 150 flights successfully. Now Moller Industries is
concentrating all its efforts on creating a production-line four-person vehicle
which will be able to transport people 900 miles at a speed of 300mph, called
the M400X. A prototype of this vehicle has already been built and is undergoing
the trials necessary to bring it online in a couple of years time. In order to
get the skycar accredited as airworthy by the FAA particular efforts have gone
into the safety aspect of the vehicle including redundancy in the number of
engines the skycar has (the M400X will have eight, of which it only needs seven
for completely safe operation), three independant computer systems monitoring
flight aspects, parachutes for passengers and the skycar itself (to ensure that
not only do you survive, but that there is a chance that your expensive new
vehicle will as well) and many more systems to ensure that the Volantor should
be as safe as any aircraft, and possibly even as any car.
Because of the Volantor's uniqueness the FAA are having to test it under the 'powered lift' category which has a set of criteria that are still being formulated by the FAA and other industry representatives, including Moller themselves. If the qualifications for ratifying this flying car aren't yet completely sorted what qualifications will a Volantor pilot need to have? A private pilot's license, but the Volantor will only be operated by two hand controls (the computer systems take care of the rest) and perhaps there may be a new category of pilot specifically for the skycar at some point in the future. The skycar is also supposed to be more environmentally friendly than any existing plane or helicopter. Its noise levels are lower than any fixed wing light aircraft and its patented Rotapower engine, based on Wankel's ideas, producing very little NOx or carbon monoxide. The Skycar's protected rotors will also make it less prone to accidents occuring when people come into close contact with aircraft engines... The Skycar will cost less than than most passenger planes and will be far more fuel efficient. The fact that it does not need expensive high octane aircraft fuels and will run on standard car petrol will also be a deciding factor in costs per mile. Even so, it's pretty obvious that you will need to be a fat wallet to be able to afford a Volantor, what with the costs involved in getting your pilot's license and that 15mpg rate. All the same, this journalist is looking forward with relish to the day when IDG Media have a Volantor port for those dignitaries that we receive so often.
Network computers - who needs 'em? All you hear these days in the popular computing press is about $500 network computers that will live on the net and use it as a massive hard drive, but let's examine just how these machines would be put together. First of all, a prime consideration would have to be the ability to run a high-level OS/processor independant interpreter, such as Java, in order to stop the diversity of different systems from mattering. Furthermore, to run such a high-level interpreted language this machine will need to have a fast processor in order to make the software run fast enough. No problem there, fast, cheap processors are coming out at pretty regular intervals these days with new PPC chips and ARM chips surfacing that are faster, smaller and more competitively priced than ever before. But this isn't all that is needed. We have to examine how exactly this software will be stored. The pundits are all in favour of pay per use software that resides on the net and which can be downloaded each time it needs to be used. OK, hands up who wants to download Microsoft Word every time they want to write a letter? Not many there then. No, the way it will have to work is that, at least until ATM or leased lines become freely available to each and every home owner, very basic modules that won't take long to download will act as object-oriented starting blocks upon which an application can be created. So, for instance, you might start with a very simple text editor to write your letter. Next up, you might want to spell check it. No problem, just click on the spell checker button and down the line it will come. No dictionaries, it's far faster to get the Library of Congress or whomever to look up the spelling of your word. But even so, it will be a brave person that wants to do this each and every time they need to work. Even if cable modems become the norm, the problem of all those high bandwidth users downloading Word onto their NCs will still slow the net down to a 9600 crawl. Unfortunately, it's a chicken and egg situation. NCs won't become popular until the net is fast enough to support them properly, and the net won't get any faster if it means laying out millions of pounds to support a system that isn't in place yet. I guess we'll just have to wait and see... No use crying over spilt oil What a disaster. The latest in a long line of oil spills occurred closer to home this time, off the shore of Milford Haven in south west Wales. A worse British oil disaster hasn't been seen since the Torrey Canyon spill in 1967. With over 40,000 tonnes of oil spreading over the coast and the Atlantic ocean, was there enough done? Well, some scientists now say that there may have been too much done. Far from decrying the efforts of the salvage team for attempting to right the vessel instead of clean the mess, it has been suggested that, while oil spills are in no-one's best interests, the long-term damage caused by them might be less than we think, and that the problem may even be exacerbated by the chemicals used to clean spills. Studies of magrove swamps in Florida and marshland and grassland in Northern France affected by spills show that land is less affected in the long-term (and may, it has been postulated, even benefit from the influx of new minerals), when compared to similar sites where the 'rescuers' spray an enzyme everywhere which is supposed to digest and break down the crude oil. And all those heartbreaking shots we saw on the television of birds covered with an oily gloop that the salvage teams desperately tried to swab off are probably dead by now. In a study carried out by an American, Brian Sharp, he found that the life expectancy of the guillemots he followed was drastically reduced in birds that had been cleaned after suffering from oil spillage. The RSPB has its doubts about Sharp's findings and will continue with cleaning schemes for the present. Snippets Hidden talents Ever wanted to find out more about nature's hidden talents? The cryptozoology home page has details on where to find out more about such oddities as the coelocanth, bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and other real or fabled creaures. The cryptozoology home page
Weird but true!
Just where exactly
is Herze-Govina?
2 + 2 = answers
Aren't bugs great? Contacts:
Network Computer
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| | last updated: 8th September 1996 |