DAVIS, Calif. — Moller International is pleased to announce today that its Skycar technology has gained ground within the military for its use in high-tech, demanding battlefield applications like those in Afghanistan.
“Afghanistan is not Iraq,” stated Lieutenant Colonel James Thomas, 304th SB, 3rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command. “The MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle that turned the tide of battle in Iraq will have much less impact in Afghanistan,” he continued in a recently issued white paper entitled Winning an Asymmetric War with Skycars.
This report, directed to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), spelled out the numerous advantages the Skycar aircraft could offer the military in its effort to win the war in Afghanistan.
Unimproved roads and rugged terrain severely limit the use of the MRAP. The Moller Skycar provides a more cost effective, highly maneuverable, lethal and safe platform for the 21st century soldier to dominate and win in an Asymmetric Warfare Environment. The Skycar will become the MRAP vehicle of Afghanistan. The ability to safely and rapidly employ soldiers on the battlefield enables us to exercise economy of force on the battlefield, doing more with fewer soldiers.”
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas is not the first voice within the military to suggest the use of the Skycar in improving maneuverability on the battlefield. In an article titled A Revolutionary Vehicle for the Future, Colonel Larry Harman, then Vice Director of the Combat Service Support Battle Laboratory at Fort Lee, Virginia, discusses the Skycar’s military version referred to as the LAMV (pronounced “lam-vee”), or light aerial multipurpose vehicle.
“(The) LAMV will benefit the Army’s battlefield distribution concept tremendously because it will be able to move commodities rapidly when and where they are needed across a widely dispersed battle space. Both air and ground main supply routes (MSR’s) would exist throughout the battle space,” he goes on to say.
“Without any doubt, this technological innovation will succeed internationally in the private, commercial, and military sectors. I hope that the U.S. Army will be the first army in the world to embrace and exploit this technology. But sooner rather than later, this aerial vehicle technology will affect all of our lives. It is just over the horizon.”
Moller International is a fully reporting public company at developed and flight-tested a utility or recreational, two-passenger VTOL aircraft called the Neuera. This was followed by the development and initial flight-testing of a four-passenger VTOL aircraft called the Skycar. The Skycar has the potential to provide an airborne alternative to a significant portion of the miles now traveled by automobile. Both aircraft use the Company’s Rotapower rotary engine, designed specifically for applications requiring high power along with low weight, volume, hazardous emissions, fuel consumption and cost per horsepower.
