'Great Scott': The hoverboard is real ... for a price
By RYAN GORMAN
The hoverboards shown in "Back to the Future" are finally a reality -- if you have the cash.
Inventors Jill and Greg Henderson, from California, have announced their hoverboard one year before the smash hit movie predicted they would be available.
The Hendo Hoverboard will be available next autumn, the couple announced on Kickstarter, and you can have one for a cool $10,000.
Michael J. Fox rode a hoverboard in 1989, and now anyone can in 2015 – with a catch.
The board can only be used over a non-ferrous metal surface, according to The Verge, which rode a prototype over an all-copper floor.
This is because the Hendo uses magnets to create the levitation effect. It can hover about an inch or two off the ground while holding two people, according to the Guardian.
The magnets are a technology similar to that used in Maglev (bullet) trains in Japan and China.
It is not possible to turn the hoverboard on a dime, or dash around town like Fox famously did, but subtle changes of direction can be made using touch sensitive plates under the feet.
"Any sort of lateral control you'd have with a skateboard goes out the window," reported The Verge's Josh Lowensohn.
"Instead, you're floating, and often spinning as your body pushes certain parts of the board, adjusting its direction," he added.
"'You should just stay on the board and let us push you," one of the safety attendants" told him. Workers then pushed him around the room.
Lowensohn categorized the hoverboard as unequivocally fun, but called the product a "proof of concept [that] is not going to be a viable option" for getting around town.
The Hendersons hope to raise $250,000 by December 15. The hoverboards will be available next October.
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