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Want a hoverboard before Marty McFly (who looks just like Michael J Fox) arrives in October 2015 to fly one around his town square? Arx Pax, a small company from Los Gatos, California, is now offering the real thing - although don’t expect to do much travelling on it.
Ever since Michael J Fox took to the air in the 1989 classic, Back to the Future II, people have dreamed of hoverboards. Many have attempted to recreate that magic; Mattel even released a plastic replica. Sadly, it didn’t levitate.
Arx Pax’s product really does hover. There’s one small catch, though – it will only hover on special surfaces, because it uses magnets, just like a maglev (magnetic levitation) train.
‘A better way to build, move people and move materials’
The current prototype of the Hendo – the company’s 18th – will hover about 3cm off the ground carrying up to 140kg (about two people) for around 15 minutes. It uses a strong magnetic field to repulse a ground-based material and float in the same way maglev trains operate. That means that Hendo will only float over floors made of non-ferrous metals such as copper or aluminium; this is no skateboard for flying down to the local supermarket, or around the town square hoiked to the back of a pickup truck.
“About two years ago, we began investigating magnetic field architecture (MFA) and hover technology as a better way to build, move people and move materials,” said Arx Pax founder Greg Henderson. “During our research, we discovered a way to transmit electromagnetic technology that is far more efficient than anything else. This means that our patent-pending Hendo Hover Engine technology can enable platforms to hover over non-ferrous materials with payloads of virtually any size and weight.”
That means that it could be used to move heavy loads around inside warehouses without friction - a use that has often been posited for maglev technology.
The Hendo has no form of forceful propulsion at the moment, and so drifts across surfaces. But it is possible to generate a gentle bias towards one direction or another using the magnetic fields generated beneath the board using touch-sensitive plates under foot. They allow rotating the board, but moving forward still needs a push off something a bit more solid.
Early days, future past
Arx Pax is also offering the magnetic field technology in a small developer box controlled by a smartphone app, which is aimed at hackers looking to use the technology for something else including industrial uses for transporting heavy loads.
The company is looking for $250,000 in funding to refine the working technology from the prototype and start production. Pledges start at $5 with $299 buying a developer kit but those looking for a working Hendo board will have to shell out $10,000.
“While the possibilities are both exciting and nearly limitless, we decided to build a hoverboard prototype and hover engine developer kits right out of the gate,” said Henderson. “It is still early days, but we are absolutely thrilled because we have proven conclusively that what was widely considered impossible is, in fact, possible.”
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