Motherfucking Hoverboards Are About To Become A Reality

Nathaniel Light11 years ago

The future is here, and it’s terrifyingly awesome.

A California startup just built a fucking hoverboard, and I’m still baffled. Hendo, currently a crowdfunded hover engine technology company, has developed a real, functional hoverboard.

In the company’s eighteenth prototype, they have finally created a working hover technology. No, it’s not quite as impressive as Marty McFly’s hoverboard, but that’s a given.

And at least it’s actually real, unlike that HUVrTech piece of shit that tugged at all our heartstrings last spring.

To be honest, unless you’re watching from the right angle, the Hendo Hoverboard almost looks like it’s touching the floor. In reality, it actually glides one inch off the ground. Inches count, boys. Just another reminder.

The current prototype can support up to 300 pounds, so even the token fat pledge brother can glide around on one. However, the trouble is getting your hands on one: the first 10 production hoverboards are going for $10,000.

The technology is actually pretty interesting. Each board hosts four disc-like engines, which create a magnetic field that pushes against itself, generating lift.

The startup has created a special “skatepark” for the boards, since they need a special surface to generate the lift that ensures the hovering, gliding action. The company insists this will be a thing of the past some day, and future hoverboards will even be able to travel over water.

There have already been talks of using these technologies in warehouse operations, building foundations, and electromagnetic fluid separation. The Kickstarter page even hints at mass transportation, with hover planes, trains, and automobiles. This might be cooler than Bubba’s hovercart, depending on who you ask, I suppose.

While this hovercraft might seem a little underwhelming, remember that this is only the beginning. The iPhone is only seven years old. Give America a decade–we’ll have this shit up and running hovering..

[via Kickstarter]