A man from Clinton Township, Michigan spent 30 years of his life and some $60,000 working on his dream, his own flying saucer. The 57-year-old Alfie Carrington, who knows nothing about computers, says he just want to replace automobile with a Jetsons-style vehicle, and not actually take his creation into outer space.

Carrington told the Detroit Free Press, "Why drive when you can fly 500mph?"

The man, who built the machine in his garage, caught the attention of Nasa in the mid-1990s and invited him to attend a conference. Nasa engineers attending the conference could only scratch their heads when the flying saucer inventor told them he knew nothing about computers.

Carrington is confident he can take his machine to fly by firing up the vessel with a rotary engine to stimulate a magnetic levitation system to rotate the ship's two discs.

He said, "It's a simple concept. There is no way this thing can't get off the ground because 40 percent of it is rotating."

However, most aeronautical engineers are not so confident on his design, especially considering the rotation speeds needed to lift the aircraft.

Aviation expert Cornelis van Dam pointed out, "If it's not properly designed and built, it will rip itself apart. I wouldn't want to stand next to it when it gets up to speed."

But such pessimism only challenges Carrington who says he plans to launch his machine in eight months. Although he needs another $40,000 for the project.

His friend, D.L Bradley, a pastor in Carrington's community, said, "When he starts it up, we'll know either it was the biggest folly of all time, or one of the most ingenious inventions of all time."