The Kern County treasurer-tax collector also seized Rotary'sother assets, including its low-altitude test craft thatessentially looks like a six-story traffic cone with helicopterblades on top. The tax collector's office says all the propertywill be auctioned off Jan. 10 to cover unpaid taxes totaling about$56,000.

The company, which is partially financed by best-selling authorTom Clancy, unveiled its strange-looking test aircraft last year.Among the crowd of 1,500 onlookers was Clancy, whose work includesthe military thriller Hunt for Red October. At the time heinvested $1 million in Rotary Rocket, Clancy said he promised itwas "going to change the world.".

Though the company planned to build a fleet of spaceships,Rotary Rocket spokesman Richard Stockman says an industrywidedecline in investments in aerospace technology has made itincreasingly difficult for Rotary Rocket to raise additionalcapital.