A Russian-American aero-design company is taking manless drone technology and making it not so manless. The result is something we’ve been longing for ever since Return of the Jedi—a method of transportation that needs to exist if only to fuel our nerdiest fantasies. We’re talking about hoverbikes.
Hoversurf, based in San Francisco and Moscow, just dropped a trailer for the Scorpion-3, a “human-carrying drone” with four rotors and a hard-edged design to convey a proper sense of extremity. The 100-second clip features a few cinematic flourishes, but mostly focuses on what we really want to see: a dude successfully piloting without harming himself or taking off the heads of others. There is, however, an appropriately dramatic soundtrack. Because once again, we’re talking hoverbikes. Bikes that hover.
The company’s website describes the Scorpion platform as a “unique electric-powered vessel combining a motorcycle seat with quadcopter drone technology bringing speed agility and stability flight to the hands of amateur and professional navigators.” Its software allows for fully manual and automated control. It's exciting stuff, but don’t expect to see the hoverbikes on your local expressway anytime soon. For now, Hoversurf sees it as an “extreme sports instrument,” though it adds that its potential for transportation “remains evident.”
Hoversurf is also developing a drone taxi, saying it plans to launch the first commercial application in 2018 under a different platform called MARK-S. The beefed up drone boasts a computer that includes sensors and sonar, as well as a security system. Watch the trailer for the Scorpion-3 hoverbike below and fade off into daydreams of blasters and Ewoks at your own discretion.
