Image: Getting started

Image: Front view

Image: Right side

Image: Right/front

Image: From above

Image: Left/front

by Joseph C. Brown

Ah, life in the 2000's. Wallscreen tv's, vidphones, vacations in Luna City, and of course, flying cars.

A great television commercial featured Avery Brooks (of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame) complaining “It is the year 2000, but where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars. I don't see any flying cars. Why? Why? Why?” Complaints of the non-existence of flying cars have since become nearly idiomatic as expressions of disappointment in the failure of the present to measure up to the glory of past predictions.

The Moller Skycar is theoretically a prototype personal VTOL aircraft - a "flying car" - called a "volantor" by its inventor Paul Moller, who has been attempting to develop such vehicles for decades. The design calls for four ducted fans - the propellers being covered which is safer and more efficient at low speeds.

Moller has been claiming to be attempting to build a flying car since 1974, constantly promising delivery dates that are just "around the corner". Each time the deadline approaches, Moller has postponed it. The only demonstrations approaching flight have been hover tests performed by a Skycar prototype that for insurance reasons was tethered to a crane.

The Diorama

Hanger Queen? Regrettably, yes. Hey, I want a flying car - anytime that I am stuck in traffic or faced with a long road trip you'd better believe I want a flying car! I just don't see it happening soon.

I took a M400 Die Cast Model that I'd ordered from Moller International, and set it into a garage that had been previously built. I then took many, many aviation, video game, and aerospace images that I'd gathered over time and started printing them out, usually in a business card size format. These were carefully sorted for impracticality or sheer nonsensical value, such as the NASA recruiting poster, the Bel Geddes Airliner, or the Corgi Toys Junior E2009 James Bond Aerocar from1977. They were carefully strewn around the diorama, and then for the final touch, some clean laundry lint was shaken over the Skycar to simulate scale dust.