The 2015 as interpreted by Robert Zemeckis consisted of flying cars, floating billboards, 3D hologram advertisement, self-lacing shoes, self-drying one-size-fits all jacket, and of course, the iconic and fantasy-inducing hoverboard. While some of them are making headways, they are not quite a reality yet, well, maybe except for the hoverboard which we have saw a handful, including a maglev variant, a DIY one and even an elaborate prank that made quite a stir. And here’s another one, a homemade example piloted by Catalin Alexandru Duru that is not only a real, fully functional hoverboard but it is also one that made history by setting the Guinness World Record for Farthest Journey by Hoverboard over Quebec’s Lake Ouareau.
To make it as a record, Catalin only has to make just 50 meters (164 feet), but he went beyond, travelling 275.9 meters (905 feet and 2 inches) before dropping himself into the water below. According to Catalin, this is the first real-life hoverboard, making him the first man to develop a working prototype. Catalin said “I will showcase that stable flight can be achieved with a machine one can stand on and control with their feet, just like in the movie Back to the Future Part II. In our case, the machine is propeller-based.” The prototype is fully capable of hover fly anywhere, but a lake was chosen because how dangerously high it can fly.
While we agree with Catalin that this is first real-life hoverboard, it is hardly the hoverboard that magically floats as depicted in the movie, plus it makes way too much noise and downwash, but I guess it is a start. Unless mankind discovers magical floating technology, propeller-based hovering contraptions are what we are going to see for anything that hovers. Keep going to witness the record setting hoverboard journey in the embedded video below.
