Episode 1034 · Oct 25, 2003 · 3h 34m
October 25, 2003: Skycars & Vampires - Paul Moller
Key Moments
Open transcriptSkycar as ultimate autopilot - no pilot's license neededPaul Moller pitches the M400 Skycar as a true point-and-go vehicle: passengers tell it where to go and the computer flies, with the human locked out of the controls when on the virtual highway in the sky.
American aeronautical research is deadMoller tells Art he testified before Congress alongside the head of NASA arguing for aeronautics funding and was ignored, calling NASA's pivot to Mars a $14-billion-a-year drain that has gutted the wind tunnels and university programs that built American aviation.
Highway saturation in three to four yearsMoller predicts that traffic in major U.S. corridors is now so close to saturation that a single flat tire can collapse a freeway for ten miles, and that whole metro areas will become functionally undriveable within three to four years rather than ten.
Nemo of the Temple of the Vampire on living foreverArt interviews Nemo, a self-described living vampire and Master Adept of the Temple of the Vampire, who claims members feed not on blood but on excess life force radiating from crowds at football games and revivals - and that the temple's promise of physical immortality is real and imminent.
Moller explains that upcoming test flights over a purpose-built lake will demonstrate untethered vertical takeoff with a pilot aboard. He envisions a future where virtual highways in the sky, supported by GPS and satellite augmentation systems, allow ordinary people to travel point-to-point without pilot training. The Skycar uses Wankel rotary engines chosen for their power density and low cost, and Moller notes that engine orders alone total nearly a billion dollars in letters of intent.
Art also addresses the catastrophic Southern California wildfires burning across multiple counties, with callers from Fontana, Vista, San Diego, and Claremont describing evacuations, closed airports, and walls of flame stretching to the horizon. Several callers and a police commissioner speculate that many of the fires may have been deliberately set near major freeway access points.
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