The flight test of a "flying taxi" has failed with tragic result when the futuristic transporter crashed and killed its British inventor in a Malaysian town.

Michael Robert Dacre, 53, was test flying a prototype of his Jetpod in Taiping when it crashed and burst into flames killing him. Witnesses told a local paper that the flying taxi failed to take off sev eral times before the fatal accident.

Dacre and his company Avcen Ltd. was planning to mass produce the Jetpod next year.

Powered by two jet engines, the taxi is designed to take off in 410 feet and land in less than a thousand feet of landing strip.

It can run quietly at 342 miles per hour, faster than a helicopter.