For those who have watched the 1989 classic movie ‘Back to the Future II’, everyone dreamed of one day having that cool hoverboard that that was featured in the film – after 25 years, the hover board is within reach.
Developers Greg and Jill Henderson call their project the Hendo Hover. Arx Pax – the company to have reportedly dared to create one says that the magic behind the Hendo Hoverboard lies in its four disc-shaped hover engines. These are essentially giant downward-facing electromagnets that work together to create a powerful magnetic field which literally pushes against itself, thereby generating the lift which levitates the board above the ground.
The board is also completely frictionless since it doesn’t make any contact with the ground and uses electromagnetic fields to levitate.
The only downside to it is that unlike Marty McFly’s board in the 1989 movie, Hendo’s levitation trick only works when the board is sitting atop a non-ferromagnetic conductor — in other words, a solid sheet of metal that doesn’t contain iron or steel.
But don’t get too excited, though it’s a solid proof-of-concept, the Hoverboard offered by Hendo Hover is just a prototype as of now.
According to CNN news, French scientists came up with something called the MagSurf a couple of years ago. It uses quantum levitation to make it work. Basically, it requires a supercooled and superconductive material to interact with a magnetic field.
You will have to pledge a whooping $10,000 for the first 10 production. The Hendo Team is also offering a hover developer kit called Whitebox for $299.
