Flying-car company founder files Chapter 11

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Flying-car company founder files Chapter 11

Inventor, engineer and flying-car company founder Paul Moller filed for personal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, listing assets of $46 million and debt of $6.3 million.

Much of the claimed assets include stock in Moller’s Davis-based flying car company Moller International Inc. and its subsidiary Freedom Motors.

Moller is the company’s majority shareholder, and he had been providing funds for the company to continue operating, including refinancing personal real estate to fund the company. He has been trying to sell the company and some of its proprietary technology for several years.

Moller’s creditors include Exchange Bank, with a $3.3 million secured claim against Moller International’s main facility in Davis, as well as a handful of other investors and financial service providers with claims on the 1222 Research Park Drive company headquarters or agricultural land Moller owns in Dixon. Secured claims total $5.9 million. Unsecured claims total $414,735 to investors and 11 credit card accounts.

The bankruptcy was filed May 18 in the Eastern District of California in Sacramento.

According to the company’s most recent earnings, reported May 20, Moller International lost $1.2 million in the nine months ended March 31, down from a loss of $1.4 million the year-earlier period.

As of March 31, Moller has lent the company $3 million, has deferred collecting rent of nearly $500,000 from the company and has deferred his own salary in the sum of more than $1 million.

In its disclosure form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Moller said it is pursuing additional sources of capital sufficient to allow it to continue developing and manufacturing its Rotapower engine, Skycar and Aerobot products.

As of March 31, the company had an accumulated deficit of $43.7 million. The ability of the company to continue as a going concern is dependent on finding additional financing as the company currently has “limited recurring revenue producing products,” the company said in an SEC filing.

The company has been working on a flying car prototype for decades as well as developing small rotary engine technology.

[AshtonBlack]

Awwww, so no sky cars. Damn you science fiction for getting my hopes up!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Awwww, so no sky cars. Damn you science fiction for getting my hopes up!

Fermi's Paradocs.

[Geoff]

Bummer! I remember a TED talk he did about 5 years ago, made it sound so good!

Edit: found it

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_moller_on_the_skycar.html