Maybe many of us have dreamed at Marty McFly's hoverboard when we used to watch Back to the Future in the '80s. Good news, now it really exists. No, it's not powered by anti-gravitational engine yet. But anyways, here it is, the hovering skateboard from the 1989 movie Back to the Future Part II that was supposed to exist in the year 2015. The gadget has been created by the automaker company Lexus.
This week a video was released by Lexus, showing the pro skateboarder Ross McGouran testing the board. On Lexus' hoverboard, McGouran was able to pull off the kind of tricks that only pro skateboarders can do, like riding on water, jumping over cars, and other impressive stunts.
After the test ride, McGouran declared that the gadget gives a hard to describe feeling of literally no friction and floating on air. The pro skateboarder added that once you start to get used with the gadget it becomes less scary and more fun.
According to Lexus, the gadget called SLIDE was created by using an insulated core containing high temperature superconducting blocks (HTSLs) housed in cryostats containing liquid nitrogen with the role of cooling the superconductors to -197°C.
The board was placed above a track containing permanent magnets. Once cooled to its operating temperature the hover height of the board is maintained by the track's magnetic flux lines. For now, the board can only float over magnets, so no freestyle skating yet unless Lexus would outfit an entire skate park with a lot of magnets underneath.
According to the Japanese carmakers Toyota, the hoverboard designed by its subdivision Lexus isn't for sale yet. Since the company began the project just 18 months ago, it is still in testing. If and when it will get to mass production stage, we can just imagine the feeling of almost magically floating a few inches above the ground.
