Forget a Hoverboard: the Military is Building a Hoverbike

Everyone who ever wanted to zoom around on a flying car or a hoverboard will soon see the technology of their dreams realized, thanks to the Defense Department’s plan to build a hoverbike that developers say will be a bit of both devices.

The prototype flying bike hovers using two rotors with room for a seat in the middle, with the option for the device to be controlled like an unmanned drone. Companies are raving about potential drone applications involving movie filming, security surveillance or package delivery – but adding a seat to a flying drone adds even more exciting opportunities for humanitarian rescue missions, military reconnaissance or eventually hovering above traffic on the commute to work.

The military announced during the Paris Air Show last week that it is partnering to develop and test the flying bike with UK-based Malloy Aeronautics and Maryland-based SURVICE Engineering.

Two prototypes of the hoverbike have already been tested, but it could take “three to five years” before a final version of the flying bike will be ready for use by the military or the public, Mark Butkiewicz, a manager of applied technology at SURVICE told Defense News. The companies are still testing issues like what power sources would be most efficient for the vehicle, he said.

It will take time before civilians get to use the vehicle, however, as the government is still working on regulations that limit the use of drones, but huge interest in the flying bike makes it likely that the civilian public will eventually be able to use it. The “greatest interest” in the hoverbike has come from motorcycle fans, so the companies are aiming to design a flying vehicle that is as affordable as an SUV and “safer than a regular helicopter,” Grant Stapleton, marketing director at Malloy Aeronautics told Defense News.

The hoverbike could fly as high 9,000 feet or help soldiers skim just above the ground and patrol an area, like troopers riding speeder bikes in “Star Wars,” giving them the ability to avoid roadside bombs, says Peter Singer, a futurist and senior fellow at the New America Foundation think tank.

“The idea is that you could traverse rugged terrain rapidly, going above obstacles that might even block a tank,” Singer says.

It’s fitting that a flying bike is getting military funding in 2015, the time travel destination depicted in “Back to the Future Part II,” which featured cars floating in traffic over cities and teenagers zipping around on hoverboards. The hoverbike won’t be in anybody’s garage for at least a few years, but it’s still appropriate to remember the words of “Back to the Future” character and inventor Doc Brown: “Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”