Moller M400 Skycar

The Rotapower engines used in the prototypes are being developed by an affiliate Moller company called Freedom Motors.[6] Each power unit comprises a Wankel rotary engine directly driving a ducted fan.[7][8] The housing is lined with Kevlar to contain the fan blades in the event of failure.[7] The Skycar has four such nacelles, each with two Rotapower engines mounted in tandem. All eight engines operate independently under computer control and, as demonstrated during a tethered flight, allow for a vertical controlled landing should any one engine fail.[7]

The Rotapower engine is based on a rotary engine developed by Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) in the 1970s[9] and is claimed to be able to run on various fuels[8] including gasoline, diesel, methanol, and clean renewable ethanol. Earlier Rotapower models used gasoline. On November 1, 2013 Moller announced that the 530 cc Rotapower engine had achieved 102 horsepower (76 kW) using alcohol (ethanol) on their test stand, yielding an effective 3 horsepower per pound (5 kW/kg) of weight.[10]

Like the M400 itself, the Rotapower engine has never entered production.

In 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Moller for civil fraud (Securities And Exchange Commission v. Moller International, Inc., and Paul S. Moller, Defendants) in connection with the sale of unregistered stock, and for making unsubstantiated claims about the performance of the Skycar, even though Moller's statements had passed the review and received "cleared comments" from the SEC during the filing and public information phase prior to being listed as a publicly traded company. Without admitting any wrongdoing, Moller agreed to pay $50,000 to settle the matter quickly so as not to delay the initial public offering of the stock.[14] In the words of the SEC complaint, "As of late 2002, MI's approximately 40 years' [sic] of development has resulted in a prototype Skycar capable of hovering about fifteen feet above the ground."[14] The shareholders of Moller International banded together to form a group known as "Shareholders of Moller International ("SoMI"),[15]

In October 2006, Moller attempted to auction the only prototype of its M200X model on eBay. It failed to sell. The highest bid was $3,000,100; Moller reported at the annual meeting of stockholders on October 21, 2006 in Davis, California, that the reserve price had been $3,500,000.[16] A previous attempt in 2003 to sell the M400 via eBay was also unsuccessful,[17] as were two subsequent attempts to sell the M400 prototype on eBay in July 2017.

On May 18, 2009, Paul Moller filed for personal protection under the Chapter 11 reorganization provisions of the federal bankruptcy law[18] and it is unknown how this will affect the fate of his ideas; Moller International itself did not file for bankruptcy but reduced operations.[2]

On June 21, 2011 Moller International applied for Experimental Airworthiness Certification of the M400 Skycar with the FAA who accepted the application. Demonstration flight plans were scheduled for October 2011 and a flight test consultant was maintained by Moller International.[19][20] However, no demonstration flight ever occurred.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed in January 2013 between Moller International and a US-China and e-business network agreeing to the goal of developing production for Moller Skycars in the United States and the People's Republic of China.[21]

As of October 2015 nothing further has been reported on developments of this previously announced joint venture despite Moller International's January 2013 press release having stated the following: "The JV will initially invest $80 million (USD) of a planned $480 million investment with the objective of producing a variety of VTOL aircraft by 2014."[22]

On November 5, 2013 Moller kicked off a crowdfunding campaign with an official announcement on the Happening Now program on Fox News Channel in the US. He subsequently followed the broadcast announcement with a press release and a radio-broadcast announcement on the Coast to Coast AM radio program with host John B. Wells interviewing Moller for 2 hours.

The campaign was formulated to raise money to further develop the systems to fly the Skycar without a tether and with a pilot on-board - something that Moller had yet to accomplish with the flights that had been conducted to date with the M400X prototype vehicle. Moller launched a donation-only crowdfunding campaign - not subject to SEC scrutiny - and promised to provide gifts and other items to donors, included a ride in the M400X as the top gift of the campaign. The Moller crowdfunding campaign ended on January 4, 2014 and raised a total of US$29,429.00 from 188 funders, far short of its $950,000 goal.[23]

As explained in a Freedom Motors newsletter from August 2019, Moller International has been dormant since 2015.[3] Shares of Moller International were revoked by the SEC in September 2019.[24]