We could start by saying “they” didn’t promise us hoverboards. People want hoverboards because they saw one in the disappointing sequel Back to the Future Part II . But that doesn’t mean people haven’t tried to make them. Like other colourful retrofuturist fantasies, hoverboards were a lustmotif that spoke to a whole generation in the way that flying cars and jetpacks did to baby boomers.
Problem no 1 : how would this thing hover? We have four choices: some type of thrust, a cushion of air, maglev or magic.
If it sits on a cushion of air, it is probably a hovercraft, which have been around since the 1960s. One alarming effort by Airboard originally claimedto be a genuine hoverboard but turned out to be a personal hovercraft, looking more like an industrial floor scrubber you can ride.
Essentially a floaty scooter, its noisy internal combustion engine allows it to bob about menacingly on a cushion of air, with a drive wheel on the ground to steer it. Looks fun but it doesn’t hover, isn’t a board, and people just don’t want to be seen on a giant lawnmower.
If our hoverboard uses maglev – and we have a few examples of those – it inconveniently requires superconductors, cooled with liquid nitrogen to around -135C. Naturally, it also requires a magnetic surface.
But they do look the part.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
