A bunch of work friends and I took part of an afternoon and did a teambuilding by taking one of the monthly tours of Moller's headquarters in Davis CA. If you haven't heard of the skycar yet, go to their website, it's really cool!
A few models in the display case in the main office area. The model all the way to the right was the "original" skycar Dr. Moller invented. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 14:41:12 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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A rotary engine they had on display. How'd you like to put that in your lawnmower? :P Picture taken on : Thu May 18 14:46:12 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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The plant manager was showing the model windtunnel here. This is only about half of the puppy. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 14:56:54 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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He then showed us a table of parts that went into the nacelles, mainly motor parts, but there's a carbon fiber fan blade too. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:06:04 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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The carbon fiber fan blade with aluminum hub. Neato, eh? Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:08:08 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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John posing next to the skycar Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:16:18 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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Me next to the skycar. Some day I'd love to own one of these. :) Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:16:38 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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Court next to the skycar. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:16:56 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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A shot of the inside of the nacelle. There's two fan blades inside there, attached to two independant engines (for redundancy). This view is from the front looking back. If you look past the fan blades you can see the vanes at the end of the nacelle that re-direct the airflow. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:20:02 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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Taro next to the skycar. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:20:40 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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Another more ominous look at the skycar. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:22:12 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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The skycar's cockpit. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:25:16 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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This is a rear shot of the nacelle. The vanes that redirect air flow are clearly visible here. There's also a small rudder at the back of the nacelle to help yaw the aircraft. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:25:58 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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They had a model of another skycar that didn't quite make it. This was supposed to be their "sporty" model. The problem they encountered is that the vanes alone were not that great at directing airflow. They needed to rotate the entire nacelle. That wasn't gonna happen with this model. :) Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:29:06 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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A shot of the sporty skycar with the plant manager answering questions. Off to the left is a really hot girl that was on the tour too. :P Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:40:46 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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Another shot of a rotary engine. This was located in their plant. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:55:54 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |
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On the left is what I believe is one of the old OMC marine rotary engines. The center is a rotary "piston". The right I believe is a high-output rotary engine. Picture taken on : Thu May 18 15:56:24 PDT 2006 640x480 image full image |