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20 years after Marty famously travelled back in time using a hoverboard in Back to the Future Part 2, Lexus has finally debuted its own version.
After teasing the smoking hoverboard a few months ago, the car manufacturer has given skateboarders the chance to try out the SLIDE in a specially constructed park in a new video.
The SLIDE has been assembled using an insulated core containing high temperature superconducting blocks (HTSLs). These are housed in liquid nitrogen that cool the superconductors to -197 degrees.
The board is then placed on top of a track filled with permanent magnets, and once the board is cooled, the track’s magnetic lines are ‘pinned’ into place, allowing the board to hover.
Haruhiko Tanahashi, chief engineer at Lexus, said: “There is no such thing as impossible, it’s just a matter of figuring out how.”
In the video, skateboarders are seen playing around with the device, with one gliding over water using the hoverboard.
It weights 11.5kg in total, features 50oz of liquid nitrogen and 32 superconductor bulks, plus Lexus has incorporated natural bamboo into the design of the SLIDE.
However, we may have to wait a while until we can try out the floating skateboard as the SLIDE is currently only a prototype and not for sale just yet.
Check out the video for the SLIDE below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwSwZ2Y0Ops
Image source: Lexus
