The WeekRumors of a Back to the Future-style hoverboard have circled the internet for years, but Engadget reports that hoverboards really do exist. And they would know: Engadget‘s associate editor Sean Buckley apparently rode one.
The hoverboard in question was created by Arx Pax, a California startup. Arx Pax created a Kickstarter crowdfunding project for the Hendo Hoverboard, which it’s billing as “the world’s first REAL hoverboard.” The company claims it invented a new hover engine technology that will allow users to ride “a self-powered, levitating platform with enough power to lift a fully grown adult,” Engadget reports.
We rode a $10,000 hoverboard, and you can too http://t.co/I1wyfvXRHF pic.twitter.com/fPvjxZt7Up
— Engadget (@engadget) October 21, 2014
The Hendo Hoverboard uses hover engines to create an electromagnetic field that will levitate above non-ferrous, conducting metals, such as copper or aluminum. So while you won’t be able to hover above any surface, in the right circumstances, you, too, can be like Marty McFly. Arx Pax has plans to build a hoverpark, too, where you’ll be able to hover around to your heart’s content.
For now, $299 will get you a Hendo hover engine as well as a small hover surface. And the first 10 Kickstarter backers to give $10,000 for the Hendo Hoverboard will get their own hoverboards, which will be delivered on Oct. 21, 2015 — the same date Marty McFly arrives in the future.
http://theweek.com/speedreads/index/270329/speedreads-the-hoverboard-is-real–and-you-can-ride-it
“So while you won’t be able to hover above any surface,…”
Needs work then.
Yea it kinda defeats the purpose now, doesn’t it?
In any case, the reason why they didn’t release these things back in the day, from what I heard, was because of a whole boatload of safety and regulatory concerns and all that crap. Same shit we deal with even more so today such as not being able to ride a bicycle without a “safety” helmet. Thank you, Big Brother. 🙄