Downside® Paul Moller and his flying car

Paul Moller and his flying car are back. For over forty years, Paul Moller, of Davis, California, has been trying to build a flying car. Over the years, he's been extracting money from investors. Moller has been in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission for making "false and misleading statements about the company's imminent listing on the NYSE and the Nasdaq Stock Market, the projected value of company shares after such listing, and the prospect for Skycar sales and revenue." He raised $5.1 million by illegally selling unregistered stock to the public over the Internet, according to the SEC complaint.

He's never been able to make it work. In the words of the SEC complaint, "As of late 2002, MI's approximately 40 years' of development has resulted in a prototype Skycar capable of hovering about fifteen feet above the ground."

Moller has been touting this product as being a few years from production for the past thirty years. Here, we provide his 1974 brochure. Read for yourself what he was claiming 30 years ago.

	This brochure was distributed by Moller's company, "Discojet Corporation", in 1974.
	Note the schedule. "December 31, 1974 - Preliminary test flights complete" "December 31, 1976 - Full-scale production begins"     Note the footnote: "P. S. Moller". That's him.
	Moller had a successful business making mufflers.
	For completeness, we show the outside of the brochure. Note the Davis, California address. Moller still operates out of Davis.

It's not impossible to make such a flying machine. Visit the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California, where the Hiller Flying Platform, which flew in 1955, is on display. Moller has been far less sucessful than Hiller.

Last updated May 16, 2004