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As for whether anyone has succeeded, well, the closest thing you'll find is probably this Japanese mini-helicopter that was featured on /. a while ago. It flies, but from all reports it's not exactly the safest gadget ever made...

There's a funny example of engrish in the pages that you referred to here: "Because of Japanese reguration isn't suitable to develop new airplane."

A much cheaper ($30,000) personal flying machine that you can buy right now in kit form can be found here and here. These things do actually fly.

If you hop over to the Japanese section, you will see it feels much more up to date, and there is even a photo gallery.

I do remember this one from 1999, and have been keeping a distant (envious) watch on the technology. Original website was at Engineering System Co, a company that seems eternally poised to make the next big thing. A different spin on the helicopter specs can be seen at this wayback page from 2000... the four separate engines sound good.

So now it's over two years late, costs just as much (only now we're in a recession), and I still want one! A landing pad would look great on our back lawn.

Q : When can I purchase a GEN H-4?
A : Good Question!
Sales of PROTOTYPE models are expected to begin summer of 2000. When the GEN H-4 becomes available it will be clearly posted on this web site.

Well, since news of the GEN H-4 becoming available is not clearly posted on the web site and it's a couple year later, this may not be worth passing the credit cards for after all.

There is a japanese company that has already built and flown successfully a personal helicopter. It was demonstrated at Airventure 99' in Oshkosh, WI. Their site is extremely slow, so someone please mirror: http://www.engineeringsystem.co.jp/Prd_GENH-4.html It's exactly what the exo-death machine hopes to be, only lighter, cheaper, and certainly safer. There are four independent engines on this japanese puppy, with a balistic parachute system for catastrophies. The test pilot at Oshkosh crashed recently but dusted himself off without any injuries greater than a bruised ego... The rotors were destroyed, but the pilot's minor injuries show that this thing has been tested and has proven itself reasonably safe.
I'm still deeply skeptical of the Moller deal- both whether the thing will ever lift off, and whether it will be possible to use it in the fully automated manner that they are suggesting. Flying requires a well trained and informed pilot with a cautious attitude to make the right decisions in order to be safe. Computers can never fully replace the decision making of a competent pilot, and no company will risk the liability!

When a helicopter auto-rotates, it flattens the pitch of the blades such that they continue wind-milling and store rotational energy. At the last second, this energy is converted to lift by yanking the collective and increasing the pitch of the blades. However, with a fixed pitch system, there is no way of converting the rotational energy to a burst of lift. Thus, the SoloTrek (and other fixed pitch VTOLs... ie: Moller SkyCar, Xantus and this cool co-axial helicopter are forced to use parachutes to save their arse.

Combine these shoes with the Ursus Mark VI armoured suit, arrive in your personal helicopter... from Slashdot, I can get the tech I need to become a superhero! Now all I need are some nifty superhero-style weapons!
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Starter buttons with LED's located on the lower half of control bar notify pilot of engine failure.

I wonder if the fact that the ground is approaching at a high speed could render this particular feature redundant?

I sent in a link to www.engineeringsystem.co.jp over two months ago when a guy from my school came back from doing an internship as a test pilot for this company!