2015 came and went without the prospect of completely viable hoverboards like Back To The Future II had promised us so long ago. Our only options two years after we were supposed to be able to hover-thwart bullies for calling us “bo-jo’s” are visiting companies like Hendo that require special hover surfaces, or farting around on the two-wheeled fire hazards that are certainly not hoverboards. Still, there’s hope in this hover-less world of ours thanks to the Scorpion-3 Hoverbike.
A recent article on Laughing Squid has revitalized our high-flying aspirations with footage of a functional electric hoverbike that looks really close to what we’ve seen in movies. The bike was created by Hoversurf Inc., a Russian company dead-set on bringing the experience of personal flight to the masses. The footage we’ve seen so far is promising but clearly isn’t ready for mass production just yet: Scorpion-3 is the combination of a motorcycle and a quad-copter with the obvious dangers of both and, to us, the thought of these whizzing around the sky just doesn’t sit well. It’s incredibly cool to think we could all be riding something like this in the future but can’t get the thought of those exposed propellers taking out the rider’s leg or, worse yet, giving some unsuspecting pedestrian a violent (and final) haircut.
While this may just be a proof of concept, it’s gone above and beyond a lot of the other hover vehicles we’ve seen. Some, like the record-breaking Flyboard Air, seem to require a lot of skill to stay airborne while Scorpion-3 appears to, well, be a lot like riding a bike.
What are your hopes for commercially available and mostly safe hover tech in our lifetime? Let’s discuss in the comments below!
Image: HoverSurf Inc.
