Hoversurf Hoverbike Rides On A Powerful Scorpion 3 Drone
Move over hoverboards. This is the year of vehicles that, true to their name, actually do fly. PAL-V just opened up sales for what is the world's first commercial flying car and now another personal flying vehicle of the future might be closer to the present. The world's first fully-functional, fully-manned hoverbike has just been revealed. Unsurprisingly, it's built upon the same foundations as a drone. A Scorpion 3, to be exact, made by Hoversurf. While commercial availability is probably still a ways off, you can probably start dreaming of real-life Star Wars Speeder Bike chases soon.
Like real hoverboards (not the kind that doesn't exactly hover), hoverbikes have long been a distant dream. But it's only now that we are starting to see those dreams take flesh, thanks in no small part to advancements in unmanned aerial vehicles, a.k.a. drones. In fact, this very hoverbike made by Hoversurf utilizes a Scorpion 3 drone platform, designed specifically for carrying heavy loads. Like a human driver.
Of course, a functional hoverbike must only fly. That's probably the easy part. Actually more difficult is making it fly the way you want to. In other words, being able to safely drive the thing in the air. It definitely looks more like trying to drive a drone than driving a bike.
Thsi hoverbike is hardly something you'd qualify as a finished product, but the very fact that i can be flown and controlled by a pilot sitting on it is reason enough to celebrate. Aside from refining the design, there's still a long way to go before such a hoverbike becomes even available to the public. Unlike PAL-V, Hoversurf can't claim to comply with any existing regulations for sch a kind of flying vehicle.
Hoversurf envisions that the flying bike will be used not just for transportation but for esports, just as how the SCORPION drone platform is poised as an esports vehicle. Given how potentially fatal those propellers are, however, it will probably be some time before we see real-world hoverbike races of any kind.
SOURCE: Hoversurf