In the film Back to the future 2 there’s a scene where Marty McFly (Micheal J Fox) flew on a hoverboard. The film was set in what the creators, Robert Zemeckis, and Bob Gale thought 2015 and personal transportation would look like – they got a lot wrong, but they might have given us a sneak peek into our own real future.
Here’s the scene as a reminder:
Fly forward to this year 2019 and a French inventor, Francky Zapata, just flew across the English channel on a real hoverboard.
This was his second attempt to cross the English channel. His first attempt ended in failure after realizing that the support boat that he landed on halfway across the channel on his first go was too small to and it ended the flight prematurely. But as for his second go a week later – Check this out…
Completing the cross channel flight in a little over 20 minutes, it’s a damn site faster that if you can take off from the white cliffs of Dover and Land in Calais under you own steam, (well Jet-power), than waiting, queuing boarding then sailing across on a ferry and probably a lot cheaper too. We love the idea of this as the new personal transportation vehicle.
There’s a little more detail about the flight and Franky Zaparta here
It’s a bit clunky compared to the skateboard version in the back to the future 2, and I don’t think it would do your business suit any good if you’ve got to get to a meeting, but it’s real, it happened and it blew our minds like the bulletproof suit
The question is – With a bit of refinement and development could this hoverboard be the future for personal transportation?
We’d love to know what you think…
