The above video, currently making the rounds online, is a bit of a nailbiter, not least because those propellers are a little too close to leg severing height for comfort. But it’s also just the latest hoverbike in the news: garage engineer and YouTube personality Colin Furze built one; Mythbusters‘ Grant Imahara built one for an episode of The White Rabbit Project; the Army recently revealed a hoverbike prototype. And more relevantly, every last one of them worked.
The hoverbike is having a moment thanks to a combination of factors. Materials science has meant we’ve discovered exceptionally strong yet feather-light materials to build small aircraft out of and the spread of drones means more engineers are familiar with quad-rotor craft and there’s a better understanding of the aerodynamics. And lighter, more efficient batteries and stronger electrical motors have made getting in the air on a human-sized drone a much easier proposition.
So building a hoverbike, at least as a novelty, is relatively easy compared to, say, engineering a jetpack or building a hoverboard. But does that mean we’ll soon be soaring over traffic, giving the finger to all the rubes stuck on the highway? Probably not just yet, as there are a few questions that need to be answered first.
The obvious question, of course, is safety. A helmet and armor isn’t going to do much when you’re soaring two stories in the air, going at twenty miles an hour, and suddenly come to earth, possibly crashing into innocent bystanders in the process (will they need helmets, too?). Nobody engineering these things is yet building in safety systems, and that’s a major roadblock to opening a hoverbike dealership, both for governments and for public relations.
A more prosaic, but equally pressing, question is range and capability. Hoverbikes are undeniably cool, and it’s not hard to see a genuine, practical use for a low-flying vehicle in a variety of situations, like search and rescue over rough terrain or faster “ambulances” for urgent situations. But it’s limited, at the moment, by battery capacity and the lift generated by the motors. Both are improving at shocking speeds and there’s a relentless push to drive them even further. Right now, though, it makes the hoverbike more of a toy than a tool.
Still, these are obstacles that can be overcome, and if our century-long fascination with jetpacks has illustrated anything, it’s that we want personal air travel. Now, it’s really just a question of how long it’ll take for batteries, and governments, to catch up.