I should add: the website of the company has been replaced by a single message, and only partial information is on the site maintained by archive.org
Times like this, the first question should be: "What do we know about this guy anyway?"
The initial press release was in October 2004, and announced they were looking for a single private investor to take up to 50% of the company.
From the January 2005
press release:
Situation update:
Avcen is still concentrating on getting the Proof of Concept aircraft into the air as soon as possible, approximately 16 months from now. We have been approached by many potential buyers and people wanting to invest. We are not accepting deposits for the aircraft and we are not accepting investment from small-stake investors. Some potential larger-stake investors have offered us reasonably large amounts of capital but we felt that their business interests were not consistent with ours. We are still holding out for a "single" investor that may of may not be associated with aerospace. This single investor might be a private individual, a consortium, a Government, or an aerospace company. Avcen does not need investment to get to the POC flight trials, but such early investor interest would certainly accelerate this process. After the POC is completed, we know that we can raise considerable funds to take the aircraft into production. Ideally, we are keen to talk to a "partner" investor in a country interested in hosting the manufacture of as much as 80% of the Jetpod. We are particularly interested in the Gulf region, e.g. UAE. The aircraft design office will remain in Europe and the aircraft will be finished in Europe. The conceptual innovator and creator of the Jetpod is Mike Dacre and interested investors should email him at
[email protected]
Their last press release was four months later, on the occasion of a CNN feature. This
release announces:
April 28, 2005 -- Avcen Limited in London is pleased to announce the following: Jet Central Limited, a newly formed sister Company to Avcen Limited, has been appointed sole worldwide agent responsible for offering specific advice to global city municipals on Jetpod innercity VQSTOL operations.
Here the tune changes slightly:
Since 15th April 2005, Avcen has offered 20% of the Company in the form of 200 shares to help fund the proof-of-concept flight trials next year. Thus far, we have been inundated by investors looking to purchase individual shares. In the meantime we are encouraging one or two large-stake investors to come forward and take either 50, 100, or all 200 shares and benefit from this once-only opportunity.
So, they were hunting whales from the start, and might have gotten a few.
For those of you interested in the business operations of the Avcen and "Jet Central", the web points to at least one company willing to sell you the information on
AVCEN and
Jet Central. Both are registered to the same addressed; Avcen was incorporated in 1994; the "Newly Formed" Jet Central was incorporated in 1996.
Additional
company info tells us that Mr. Dacre's BA was in Aviation and MSc in "Air Transport Management". A
Register Article also calls him a pilot.
So we have a company with only one person as a contact for any of their press releases, design information, sales, listed as:
Mike Dacre, MSc. Managing Director
So also Managing Director, "The conceptual innovator and creator of the Jetpod", and, apparently and alas, Chief Test Pilot.
He claimed to have enough money for "proof of concept' tests, but sought (and apparently secured) outside investors, or at least one. PoC testing was supposed to take place in 2006. What's the next we hear from them?
Archive.org's versions of the Avcen homepage link to now-unavailable 2006 press releases regarding opening a "Malaysian Satellite Office" (August 1) and increased staffing" (April 24). Their "VP, Corporate Development" is "Mr. Kenneth Mo"
2008, they post the following two videos:
From this we gather: A. they had a prototype fuselage in a hangar somewhere, without engines or cockpit. B. Their company/Jetpod info piece takes place entirely in front of a bluescreen. C. The poster of the child/hangar video, ccannonball, lists her or his location as Malaysia.
So a Malaysian investor, or even the thing being built in a Malaysian hangar is entirely likely. This is confirmed by a
mention on the City University's ATM MSc page. Under "More", subheading "Graduate Destinations":
A pilot and broker when enrolled, a 2004 British Graduate has set up an aircraft manufacturing company in Malaysia to build his own design of Very Light Jet, the Avcen Jetpod.
I'm hoping that Mr. Dacre was a misunderstood genius, and the Jetpod becomes a screaming success. His aircraft were to be small, with vertical thrust provided by angled jets. Flight time would be short (and range would be shorter). From the descriptions, he would need to get regulatory approval for something that could only stay airborne for 10-15 minutes without running out of gas, flew very low to ground in built-up areas, and needed both engines turning for short-field performance.
In building a startup, you need to take plenty of risks. In building a STOL jet-powered commuter that shoots silently along urban corridors at 300 knots at 300 feet AGL (better have a tough windscreen and impressive wiper blades), you have to be crazy or know something the rest of us don't. Considering the way the project was funded and developed until now, common opinion is pointing to obsession leading to madness rather than genius. Either way, it makes a fascinating story, especially since, unlike so many other flying car types, he obviously believed in his design; he may have been deluded, but Dacre was no huckster.
So "Taxi Tests" does not sound plausible, especially if the same witness described those "taxi attempts" as takeoffs aborted due to engine problems. Years behind, on a shoestring budget, with a small number of investors, we find a small company (that from the outside appears even a 'one-man' job) performing an unannounced test (flight) on an unapproved airframe of a completely novel design with two completely new "revolutionary" 2400-lb-thrust engines.