Working Hoverboard Prototype Takes us Back to The Future

[Steven Bogos]

Working Hoverboard Prototype Takes us Back to The Future

[kickstarter=142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard]
The future is now: Hendo Hoverboards are the first real, working, hoverboards.

Every year, people joke that they "only have X years left" to build a working hoverboard prototype before we reach that October, 2015 deadline - the year Marty and Doc travel to in Back to The Future Part 2. Well, now, I'm very happy to report that hey, we just might get one out there before next year, as Hendo Hoverboards [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard] has gone ahead and produced a 100% real, working hoverboard prototype.

Hendo's Kickstarter campaign only went up yesterday, but has already raised $194,000 of it's $250,000 goal. Hendo says that the prototype is real and works, and has video proof to back that up, and is raising the money from Kickstarter to help produce them, and to create places to ride them. What do I mean by "places to ride them?" Well, unfortunately, the hoveboards won't actually hover over any surface - only non-ferromagnetic conductors (a fancy type of metal).

The magic behind the hoverboard lies in its four disc-shaped hover engines. These create a special magnetic field which literally pushes against itself, generating the lift which levitates the board off the ground. It's essentially the same technology used in high-speed Maglev trains. The board is self-propelled, and you'll be able to move it by pushing your foot on the ground - just like a real skateboard.

[gallery=3398]

As for the movie? Well, "Yep, there was a movie," reads Hendo's official statement, "However, our attorneys have told us not to go there. So this is as far as we'll take it.

Furthermore, Hendo is also offering the "Whitebox Development Kit" to early adopters, which uses the exact same technology of the hoverboard in a more compact form, allowing potential developers to create new and interesting ways to use the hover tech.

Unfortunately, this kind of sweet tech does come at a price, as the minimum Kickstarter donation required to own your very own Hendo Hoverboard is $10,000. It seems the expectation of the Kickstarter is instead that various hoveboard skateparks will be created, where fans can use the boards for a small fee, rather than owning their own board.

Source: Kickstarter [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard]

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[Chessrook44]

Now, some people might say "Oh it's just magnets, it's hardly a hoverboard". Others might say "It's barely an inch off the ground! That doesn't count!" More might say "Oh so it only works over certain materials? LAME!"

Well yanno what? It's a board. It's hovering. I think I can officially post this now.

 

[mad825]

Eh, they cheated. Still it's kinda a waste of money seeing as you need to be on a specific surface as we've been making shit hover with very similar scientific methods decades now and even then it's going to be a very expensive hoover (not a typo) by picking-up most of the crap that's off the floor.

But hey, I'm just one person. It would seem like people have enough cash throw away with little in return generally speaking. This is no revolution in technology.

 

[Aeshi]

Eh, they cheated. Still it's kinda a waste of money seeing as you need to be on a specific surface and even then it's going to be a very expensive hoover (not a typo) by picking-up most of the crap that's off the floor.

But hey, I'm just one person. It would seem like people have enough cash throw away with little in return generally speaking. This is no revolution in technology.

I dunno, Mag-lev trains are a thing, and they wouldn't be making and using those if they weren't in some way better or more efficient than the normal kind, would they?

 

[mad825]

I dunno, Mag-lev trains are a thing, and they wouldn't be making and using those if they weren't in some way better or more efficient than the normal kind, would they?

Well all I can say is that the UK has been using the same lines since Victorian times with very few upgrading to electric and I believe the US are not in a much dissimilar situation. In fact The only place I hear Mag rails are in the east specifically Japan.

I would go even further to say that the HighSpeed Rail 2 in the UK is consider a national scam by the government which is costing over £50 Billion, we'd be rich as North Korea if we consider using Mag-lev trains. Hell not even our local lines will be not be upgraded for years to come.

 

[truckspond]

Once they figure out how to make it hover over water then I can safely say that we live in the future.

I just hope that this one is not a hoax as well

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Why does everyone want hoverboards? (Especially, ones that can't go on water. "McFly, you bojo.")I want a flying Delorean and more Jaws sequels advertising using crappy GCI hologram sharks. The self-lacing shoes and self-drying jackets would be nice, too.

 

[Buizel91]

People ask for Hoverboards, we get them, and they still complain! LOGIC!

OT: To be honest, they can only improve the design over time, eventually hovering higher off the ground, on any surface etc, so for a first try? Amazing!

So where can i buy one?

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

So Back To The Future II was right.

*eats hat*

What's also sad is that my parents genuinely believed the Christopher Lloyd joke one more than this ._.

 

[MetalMagpie]

Once they figure out how to make it hover over water then I can safely say that we live in the future.

If you want something that hovers over water (and land too), get a hovercraft [http://flyingfishhovercraft.co.uk/Buy-A-Hovercraft/Marlin-2-3-Seater.aspx].

To be honest, they can only improve the design over time, eventually hovering higher off the ground, on any surface etc, so for a first try? Amazing!

The technology uses magnets, so will always need a metallic surface to run over. Unfortunately, no "improvements" to the design (short of starting again from scratch with a different technology) will change that. But looks like they're working on getting it higher off the ground.

 

[Veldel]

The technology uses magnets, so will always need a metallic surface to run over. Unfortunately, no "improvements" to the design (short of starting again from scratch with a different technology) will change that. But looks like they're working on getting it higher off the ground.

WHat about the Daleks they where like this at first needing metal serfaces to keep charged.


OT: Awrsome a hoverboard I wonder how many places will promote stuff from the movies,

 

[Artemicion]

I have concerns about the only friction available to slow you down being the air around you - as well as the consequences of slipping off the ferromagnetic "float-zone" and scraping the underside on concrete.

 

[VanQ]

"It's gonna be magnets, isn't it?"

Yep. Magnets.

Sorry, no dice.

 

[ccggenius12]

These people must be crazy. They're just gonna incite the Juggalos...

 

[Pinkamena]

They say they expect these to be able to hover on all kinds of surfaces in the future, even water. How the fuck exactly do they expect that to be possible when the very core of the "hover engine" is based on eddy currents? Eddy currents can only be induced in electrically conductive materials...

 

[Ukomba]

I take real umbrage with the sentence: "These create a special magnetic field which literally pushes against itself, generating the lift which levitates the board off the ground."

 

[Olas]

People ask for Hoverboards, we get them, and they still complain! LOGIC!

That's because it's not really a hoverboard in the sense that most people mean. It has to stay over a magnetically charged surface at all times and only floats a few centimeters off the ground. The [a href="http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/352/109/fc2.jpg"]science[/a] behind it is well known to any third grader, and has been in use on trains for years.

To be even more of a downer, I'd also question whether this is something anyone was really asking for. What exactly are the advantages of a hoverboard over a regular skateboard? It seems more like a novelty item than something that could benefit skaters.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Obviously NOT like the movie at all, clickbait article...
And MagLev? Pfffffffff. Quantum Levitation at room temperature is what we need!