Malaysian Flying Saucer
Saturday, March 17, 2007
A Malaysian engineer has designed the world's first recretional
flying saucer. Helang Tech 2020 Sdn. Bhd.'s President and Chief Astro Engineer, Ang Jau Kim, 26, said his flying saucer will be ready for take off in the year 2020.
The space machine called the "Helang 2020 Wawasan" weighing merely 2 tons and having a diameter of 6 meters uses 4 engines from Malaysia's car maker Proton's luxury saloon - the Perdana 2.0.
The 2 seater flying machine is able to fly up to 450 meters above ground and is speculated to be popular with top executives wanting to beat the traffic congession in Kuala Lumpur and other major cities in Malaysia.
Ang, more popularly known as "Jay Kay", when contacted, said that his design was inspired by Han Solo's space ship, the Millenium Falcon from the film Star Wars. The Helang 2020 Wawasan is expected to retail at US$150,000 per unit.
"We will start with a few hundred units for sale domestically first, but we plan to expend our operations throught Asia progressively" said Jay Kay.
Major analysts are however not very enthusiastic about the sales of Jay Kay's flying saucer as they claim not many residences in Malaysia are equipped with sufficient land area to accomodate such a large "vehicle".
AS Lau of MoneyMan Research Sdn. Bhd. said, "the price is okay, but Malaysian houses are not built to permit sufficient parking for this aircraft. If potential owners have to park it somewhere else, away from their homes...then what's the point ? they might as well drive their cars to work".
Meanwhile, business souces say, real estate prices of residences close to playing fields have shot up by 300% starting last month and is expected to increase futher.
Rumour has it that the rich have been rushing to purchase these residences to park their flying toy at the playgrounds nearby.
Ang, whose hobbies include playing computer games like the World Of Warcraft is speculated to receive an award from the prime minister for his invention.
