While it may not have been the first, the Moller Skycar has become widely known as the original flying car, partly because of the vast marketing hype surrounding its 30-plus-year development. Now anyone has a chance to own an M400 prototype in "flight form and condition," according to item description. Recently a prototype has been listed on Ebay. And relisted.

Paul Moller, the brains behind the Moller Skycar, has led a roller-coaster development and marketing campaign while attempting to bring his life's work to fruition. Moller's ideas and concepts behind a personal vehicle capable of vertical takeoff and landing were quite ahead of its time. The groundbreaking design even graced the cover of the January 1991 issue of Popular Mechanics.

The aircraft includes eight independent Wankel rotary engines that provide power to computer controlled ducted fans. The pilot would provide no direct input, but rather instruct the computer with the desired flight mode. The aircraft's ducted fans would rotate and provide lift for vertical flight or thrust for horizontal, much like the concept behind the much touted XTi Tri-Fan 600.

Unfortunately, adequate funds were never acquired to finish the project. The Skycar was deemed a failure when company could not deliver on the promise to actually bring a product to market. The only public flight of the M400 was in 2003 during a tethered demonstration (though pre-order sales have been available since the 1990s).

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The most recent auction listing is Moller's second attempt at selling off this asset on Ebay. The first attempt required a very optimistic starting bid of $1 million. The 'Buy it Now' option was also available for a cool $5 million. At the time of this writing, there are currently zero bids at the much lower initial offering of $250,000.

Apparently the aircraft is some form of disassembly as the listing states "Reassembling the M400 back to its original state will take some time." But the optimistic hope of Moller is still evident. The description further reads, "a bidder can buy the M400 Skycar® and with the support of Moller International, make it the world's first FAA-approved VTOL-capable "flying car."

Who knows? Maybe there's a well-heeled flying car fan out there, and Moller's baby won't be lost to the annals of aviation history.

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