Well, it looks like the future is finally here and the impossible has actually become possible. Available for pre-order right now–with a price tag of $10,000–is a real-life hoverboard from Hendo. In 1989, Back to the Future Part II featured Marty McFly taking a futuristic “hoverboard” for a spin around the town square in the year 2015. Now, exactly one year ahead of schedule, Hendo is introducing “the world’s first REAL hoverboard and hover developer kit” through its popular Kickstarter page. With an original goal of $250,000, more than 1,800 backers have donated a total of $336,868 at the time of this posting–and there are still 51 days to go. Hendo’s current hoverboard prototype–its 18th–currently floats about one inch above the ground using four disc-shaped hover engines that create a special magnetic field which “literally pushes against itself, generating the lift which levitates our board off the ground.” As of now, this revolutionary piece of technology is primarily intended to be self-propelled along a non-ferromagnetic conducting surface, yet “the actions which stabilize it can also be used to drive it forward by altering the projected force on the surface below.”
Hendo’s future hoverboard and final product will feature an elegantly sculpted form factor, one inch of ride height, a smooth and effortless glide, seamless full control, and numerous safeguards. Until the Hendo Hoverboard is readily available and within everyone’s reach, the company is offering the same technology in a small, accessible, and afforable form factor called the Whitebox Developer Kit (click here to see a demonstration), which is designed be user-friendly and tinkered with. Hendo actually encourages its Whitebox users to “use it for hovering, or for applications we haven’t even imagined.” The recently introduced Whitebox+ “puts hover capabilities in your hands” and allows users to operate the box through their mobile device. Both Whitebox models can even be personalized with unique skins.
The company is also in the creative stages of designing a “hoverpark” to go with the Hendo Hoverboard. Similar to a standard indoor skatepark, the “hoverpark” will be infused with cutting edge technological design and surfaces optimized for the enhanced capabilities of the hoverboard–backers can even reserve a brick-sized piece of the park’s surface etched with their name. Founded by Greg and Jill Henderson in 2012, Hendo’s goal is “to create an ecosystem, together with you, of technologies that use Magnetic Field Architecture. We want to encourage the democratization of technology.” The Hendo Hoverboard is officially expected to launch on October 21, 2015.
Watch the Hendo Hoverboard’s promotional video below, click here for the project’s Kickstarter page and visit hendohover.com for more information.
Video by Hendo Hover/YouTube.com
Photo by Forbes.com
