Flying hoverboards: can movie fantasies become reality?

In the 1989 movie Back to the Future Part II, hoverboards went from being a fanciful invention to a reality. The technology, which uses the repulsive force of superconductors and magnets, is still far from being practical, but it could be a revolutionary form of transportation in the future.

 

Back to the Future Part II, released in 1989, follows the main character as he travels in a time machine to the futuristic world of 2015, 30 years in the future. The movie features flying cars and hoverboards. While the flying cars in the movie are still a figment of our imagination, hoverboards have been developed and are gaining traction. The first hoverboard was created by the American company HENDO. The hoverboard was named one of the “25 Best Inventions of 2014” by TIME magazine. After the TIME article, Lexus, a Japanese automobile company, released a video of a hoverboard being driven by a driver. In the video, the hoverboard floats freely over a variety of terrains and is a sight to behold.
Hoverboards are not just a figment of our imagination, but a revolutionary invention that combines science and technology to become a reality. Once only seen in science fiction movies, these devices have become a reality, and our daily lives are increasingly resembling the future. The rise of the hoverboard, in particular, is more than just a technological advancement; it’s an important example of how human imagination can be realized. This invention has inspired not only engineers but also the general public, raising expectations for future technologies.
So, how exactly do hoverboards work? The basic idea of creating a hoverboard comes from the repulsive force between a superconductor and a magnet. A superconductor is a conductor whose electrical resistance approaches zero at a certain threshold temperature, resulting in superconductivity. Superconductors are completely antiferromagnetic, which means that the magnetic field inside the superconductor is always zero because the superconductor itself creates a magnetic field that is opposite to the external field. This is known as the Meissner effect, which means that if a superconductor is placed on top of a magnet, the superconductor will be magnetized with the opposite polarity to the magnet, canceling out the external magnetic field. For this reason, when a superconductor is placed on top of a magnet, there is a repulsive force between the magnet and the superconductor that causes the superconductor to float permanently on top of the magnet. So, if you put a skateboard made of superconductors with a very low temperature on top of a magnet, it could theoretically float in the air without friction with the ground. This is the principle of hoverboards.
However, in order for a hoverboard to actually levitate, there are a number of conditions that must be met in order to fulfill this theoretical principle. One of them is that the temperature of the superconductor must be kept very low to maintain its superconducting state. To solve this problem, liquid nitrogen is used. If you continuously supply liquid nitrogen around the superconductor, you can lower the temperature of the superconductor to around 180 degrees below zero and keep it superconducting. In other words, Lexus built a reservoir inside the hoverboard that stores liquid nitrogen and continuously injects it. This process is very complicated and demanding, and since it requires a constant supply of liquid nitrogen, the maintenance costs are quite high. This is one of the reasons why it is difficult to commercialize hoverboards with current technology.
Another problem for commercializing hoverboards is the presence of magnets to keep the superconductors afloat. Lexus solved this problem by burying the magnets directly into the ground. They modified the road to create a magnetic path on the ground and covered it with paint, and then filmed the video only on the magnetic path to create natural footage. While this approach was successful for filming purposes, it would be economically and technically inefficient to build magnetic roads throughout a city. So for now, hoverboards are a limited invention that can only be used in certain places.
But could hoverboards soon become a viable form of transportation? If you look at hoverboards in videos, it seems like it won’t be long before everyone will be riding them, but commercialization is not yet possible. For one thing, hoverboards need to be constantly refilled with liquid nitrogen in short bursts, as liquid nitrogen evaporates quickly at room temperature. Also, the space for the liquid nitrogen makes it heavy, weighing about 9 kilograms, making it difficult to carry around. In addition, they can only be ridden on magnetic surfaces, which means that they can only be used in limited spaces, and they are very expensive to produce for all the reasons mentioned above. Finally, the fact that hoverboards are very difficult to maneuver also makes them impractical. Even the professional skateboarders in the Lexus video practiced riding hoverboards countless times before falling off. Because hoverboards don’t have a lot of height in the air, if a rider tumbles, one side will scrape against the ground, causing them to lose their center and fall.
Another reason for the delayed commercialization of hoverboards is not only technical, but also safety. Because hoverboards are airborne, they can cause greater injuries in an accident, especially if they are difficult to control, which can lead to unexpected accidents. This is another challenge that needs to be addressed to make hoverboards practical. New technologies need to be developed to ensure safe use, and this will require significant research and development.
Hoverboards have many limitations at the moment. Even though they still have a lot to work on, it’s great to see that they’ve been able to take something that was once just a vague idea and turn it into a reality. People will continue to research and challenge hoverboards in the future, and one day they will become a reality.
The emergence of hoverboards is more than just a technological advancement, it proves that human imagination and scientific challenge can be realized. Although commercialization is currently difficult due to various limitations, with the development of future technologies, hoverboards will definitely become a part of our daily lives. This will be a historic turning point in the future, when the imagination of the movie becomes reality.