Hover Shoes, Hoverboards and Levitation Devices

As I get ready (mentally) for , I am thinking about inventions and the thing that comes to my mind most often is hovershoes.

You may ask.. Hovershoes?  Do they exist?

That, my friend, is a very good question.

I have yet to see a pair, but I can guarantee you that there are a lot of elementary school kids that would love to get their hands on a pair of hovershoes!  My evidence?  The 4,926,482 views - and counting - of the Household Hacker hovershoes video since 2008.  The hundreds of thousands of views of the various knockoffs of the Household Hacker hovershoes video.  The fact that several kids I know have done their science fair project on hoverboards, and that at least one of them started with views of hovershoes videos.

What is the Household Hacker video?  Well, take a look yourself!  Amusing, yes, but sadly untrue.

The hoverboard project that appears in science fairs most often is made using a leaf blower or shop-vac (in blower mode) and feeding the air through a hole in a plywood base.  The plywood base is covered at the bottom with a heavy-duty plastic (the skirt) that has holes cut at regular intervals around the center.  The skirt is fixed to the plywood with a screw and stiff plastic lid.  The force of the air coming out of the holes then spreading across the bottom of the skirt to escape along the sides of the hoverboard provides the "hover".  There is a lot of learning to be done with this project and the effect is overwhelming fun!

So.  How hard would it be to take the hoverboard project just a bit further?  Two smaller boards, with a pair of ski boots fixed to them and two or more smaller yet still powerful blowers?  They'd have to be powered with a battery of some sort.  Might be a little clunky.

What about just elongating the shape of a hoverboard and adding ski boots to that?

I tried to convince some kids and even an adult or two, that it was worth trying.  My thought was that even if it didn't work, we would still have some fun but, with the science fair behind us, I had no one to take me up on my offers for more experiments, and it wouldn't have been any fun on my own.

Still, dreaming of hovercraft, I joined the Hoverclub of America.  I could read about all the building going on and drool at the photos.  I imagined launching it from the Long Beach Scout Sea Base and driving it down the Marine Stadium in Alamitos Heights.  I considered whether there would be a negative impact on the environment.  My concern was unnecessary.

The following year, still no takers.  Everyone but me - SO done with hoverboards!

I also discovered that there was a Mythbusters episode that included "Levitation devices" - read hoverboards.  This is a nice coincidence because Adam Savage, the host, is scheduled to appear at the Bay Area MakerFaire in May!

Trish writes as for Patch and as Handmade Penguin for the Handmade Penguin blog.