Magnetic Hover Chairs for Just Under $10,000
May 20 2008 / by Alvis Brigis
Category: Technology Year: 2008 Rating: 2 Hot
Inspired by the hover board flown by Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part 2, released back in 1989, British company HoverIt, Ltd. has designed the world’s first consumer-ready hover chair. Available fot just under $10,000 U.S. the hover chair works like a mag-lev train, floating above a set of powerful magnets.
Check out this demo to see for yourself:
In case you’re concerned about the lifespan of the hover chair there’s no need to worry. The magnets require no re-charge and will shed just 2% of their power over the first 20 years of use.
While the hover chair of course falls into the novelty category at this early stage, I can imagine a variety of future applications for long-lived magnetics that include shock absorption while walking or gliding, new-fangled fitness training equipment and ultimately some sort of hover board that works in concert with a gyroscopically regulated platform such as the one at the heart of the Segway human transporter. (cont.)
Unfortunately it will still take some remarkable physics breakthroughs to create a hover board such as this:
But in the meantime, at least we’ll be able to fly using this, so long as we’re willing to go tandem.
Comment Thread (1 Response)
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Unless they can make cheap magnetic material that doesn’t interfere with credit cards, pacemakers, etc., can be mixed with concrete and can cover all the streets in the world, how else would a hovercraft using this same scientific principle work or be at all efficient/desirable?
Posted by: Marisa Vitols May 21, 2008
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