Aladdin’s Magic Carpet May Be Some Way Off, But The World’s First Hovering Skateboard is Here!

No we aren’t talking science fiction. Lexus has created the world’s first floating skateboard or ‘hoverboard’! Lexus’s hoverboard uses magnetic levitation, or maglev, to achieve frictionless movement and liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors are combined with a magnetic surface to repel gravity.

Maglev technology itself isn’t new, and this isn’t the first hoverboard to use it. American startup Arx Pax raised over half a million dollars last year through a Kickstarter campaign to fund its Hendo Hoverboard. But Pax’s board is dependent on batteries that last just 10 to 15 minutes and take an hour or two to charge. The technology is also being used in mass rapid transportation systems such as the Shanghai Maglev Train. In Japan, the SCMaglev test train recently reached a top speed of 375 miles per hour.

Riding the hoverboard however is not a walk in the park. “A skateboard has got resistance. Even with a surfboard, you’ve got the resistance of water,” says David Nordstrom, a general manager for global branding at Lexus International in Tokyo. “This is essentially floating on air. If you’ve ever tried to stand on a board, or something on water without any momentum, that’s what this kind of feels like.”

Even though Lexus and Evico were able to pull off the project, don’t expect to ride one soon. Lexus says it has no plans to mass-produce the hoverboard. What’s also a dampener is that maglev technology that makes this hoverboard work would need a magnetic metal track – normal concrete pavements won’t do. 

Lexus solved this issue by converting a skate park in Barcelona into a temporary hoverboard skate park. On an existing track composed of cement and wood, the Lexus and Evico teams swooped in to lay down hundreds of small magnets. (Source – Bloomberg)