“Probably impossible.. But certainly worth a try!” reads a new Indigogo campaign that hopes to raise funds for the creation of a working hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II.
“The technology needed to make a real working Hoverboard already exists, it’s just very expensive and not easily obtainable right now. Well, that’s one of the key things that we want to solve with this project. We want to spend the time and effort to figure out exactly what is needed and focus on bringing that technology down to a price that is affordable and obtainable.”
The project, created by Haltek Industries, is asking for a cool $1 million, which will be used for research, prototyping, and the development of accompanying iPhone and Android apps.
The hoverboard, if all goes as planned, will use “omni-direction tubeaxial blowers” to hover. You’ll be able to control the hoverboard using the aforementioned smartphone apps, allowing you to run diagnostics, password lock it, that sort of thing. The biggest problem, however, will be the battery, which must be light enough to fit on the board, but strong enough to lift the rider.
But Does It Work On Water?
I don’t know. Seems like a long shot.
The project hopes to have a working hoverboard — “the world’s first” — by Summer 2015, to coincide with the future of Back to the Future Part II. All of its progress will be documented and made open-source, so others may use the research to make their own hoverboards.
Unfortunately, just backing the project doesn’t guarantee you much more than the smartphone app, unless you’re willing to give $1,000 for a miniature replica of the hoverboard, or $10,000 for the real thing. And that doesn’t guarantee that a working hoverboard will ever see the light of day.
“If we can’t build a real working prototype by 2015, that’s ok because we still made the first step to developing this technology. We don’t know how long it will really take to create a Hoverboard, but we want to get the process started and help see it through. That’s what we’re here for and we’re very excited to see what the future holds.”
But it’s interesting. Novel. Are you ready for a world with hoverboards? I’m not sure we’ll be there by 2015, but I’ll be curious to see what happens.
