The Hoverboard

 

This is a project I worked on during the summer of 2014. Video below.

 

I wanted to build a hoverboard to get around campus like Marty McFly. Doing this in real life involves a lot of science. You can use magnetic levitation to hover above a metal or magnetic track, you can use large rockets or fans to fly through the air, or you can sit on a cushion of air surrounded by a cloth "skirt." The latter is by far the most economical option, and within the budget of the grant I was offered for the design project, it was the obvious choice.

 

The applications of hovercraft aren't limited to recreational gliding or escaping from futuristic thugs (of 2015 from the perspective of 1989). Its possibilities include the transportation of enormous loads, watercraft, and advanced vertical-takeoff propulsion systems.