Share prices for famous “Skycar” developer Moller International (OTCBB: MLER) rose slightly today after the company announced it had tested a new ethanol-water mix as a possible fuel for its most famous invention, the Volantor, a rotary-engine flying vehicle the company hopes will one day revolutionize the automotive industry.According to the company’s chairman and founder, Paul Moller, Moller International has tested its brainchild with the new 70 percent ethanol/30 percent water mix and found it the perfect fuel for the machine – especially since it won’t burn, making it a perfect substance for an aircraft.
“Water and alcohol have a great advantage in that they mix without any additives,” Moller said. “It doesn’t burn – if you throw it on the ground and try to light it, it doesn’t burn. That’s one of the major advantages certainly of anything we do.”
“The alcohol burns very slowly and gently and puts it out – it’s a self-extinguishing fuel,” added. “Only recently have we [tested] it in the Skycar’s engine. Something that will not burn outside of the engine is very attractive from a safety point of view.”
In addition, the mix keeps the engine clean and free of debris – “as clean as the day it was put together,” Moller said – and increases the power of the engine by 25 percent thanks to the cleaner combustion process.
As for the Skycar itself, the machine is still in development. Based off of advanced Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) technology, the car will supposedly allow the driver (or pilot, depending on your point of view) to “drive” the car through the air at will, even up to speeds of 275 miles an hour. Plenty has been written about the Skycar already in publications like Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, Discovery, and others, but with the company’s self-imposed deadline of a 2008 release looming closer, everyone’s hoping that the Skycar will be a success.
Share prices for Moller International crept up 16 percent after the news was released, rising from 80 cents a share to 90 cents a share.
