California start-up makes ‘Back to the Future’ hoverboards

Ever since Marty McFly rode on one in 1989's hit film Back to the Future Part II, fans have dreamed of having their own levitating skateboard, or "hoverboard".

That wish has now come true, as engineers in northern California have turned the futuristic device into reality.

The Hendo Hoverboard levitates on conductive surfaces: defying gravity, it floats about 2.5cm above the ground, powered by four disc-shaped magnetic engines.

That means you can ride it just like a skateboard on a ramp-style platform, albeit one made only of metal or otherwise electricity-conducting material, to produce the magnetic field.

It can move speedily, if noisily, in multiple directions, as well as turn around. The battery only lasts seven minutes, but that is still enough time to take a grown adult for an exhilarating ride.

The technology that propels it is called "magnetic field architecture", developed by the start-up company Arx Pax, which turned to the Kickstarter crowdfunding website to raise seed money to bring it to market.

"We want to seed this hover ecosystem by putting the technology into the hands of all those tinkerers," said Jill Avery Henderson, co-founder and chief operating officer of Arx Pax.