Back to the Future is Back in the Present: Hoverboards are Here!

The idea was simple: How to use magnetic fields to make levitation feasible. Today, Greg Henderson has not only developed a technological revolution, but he has done it in one of the most iconic ways imaginable, with a Hoverboard. The idea is currently being spearheaded on Kickstarter under the banner Hendo Hoverboards – World’s first REAL hoverboard.

This isn’t the Hoverboard you’ve probably been looking for, though. There are still a great number of limitations that hold it back, like only being able to use it on non-ferromagnetic conductor surface, and power requirements limiting its running time. The developers kit, known as the Whitebox, has a set of rechargeable LiPo batteries that can only provide enough power for 12 to 15 minutes of use before they have to be recharged for 2 hours.

We all know new tech is expensive, with that in mind the current Kickstarter goal is to raise $250,000, with some of that money funding an indoor hover park so people can take advantage of riding this new wonder. That price of admission is staggeringly high: $100 for a 5 minute ride, breaking down to $20 a minute. Want a Hoverboard of your own? That will cost you $10,000, but there are only 6 of the 10 limited offers left. The WhiteBox is available if you pledge $299 or more, which can move things of similar weight, like models of a Landspeeder.

When we put these limitations aside it is hard to deny that this is a very important first step to bringing us near effortless mass-transportation, the way in which we move cargo, buildings with increased safety during an earthquake and so much more. These applications are not lost on the folks over at Hendo either, they admit this an ambitious dream, but where is it written that all of our dreams must be small ones?