175mph Hoverbike created – George Lucas would be proud

Star Wars is such an iconic film, all of the (older) audience reading this will probably have seen the film at least 10 times over the course of their life. Without doubt, there are many memorable scenes in the movie and this is probably why even kids today still watch it. A true classic.

For fans of the hovercraft in the game, then this new creation from Chris Mallow and his team will certainly get the heart pumping this morning. They have created a working hoverbike that can speed across the ground without touching it.

Malloy's website on the vehicle says “Our goal is to produce an extremely reliable helicopter, designed with rugged simplicity at its heart and true pilot safety built into the design and operation of the aircraft.”

This bike is not yet on sale, but it can apparently reach 175 miles per hour and claims to work to 10,000 feet. We are into performance sports bike territory here, even though it puts out a modest 80kw @ 7,500 rpm. It is a hefty 1100c design, a flat twin four stroke with one camshaft, four valves per cylinder and a central balancer shaft. George Lucas will probably have several on order for his trips around the country.

The bike is said to have many uses, such as for ‘cattle mustering' or ‘aerial survey' and the website even mentions a use for ‘wildlife and parks'. The principle of the design is simple, it works like a helicopter, forcing air under the chassis to lift it off the ground. The blades are made from Tasmanian Oak with a carbon fibre leading edge according to the spec list on the website.

It is ten feet long and four feet wide and takes regular unleaded petrol using about eight gallons of fuel per hour in flight. 21.8 miles to the gallon are quoted which isn't bad considering and it can travel up to 92 miles in one outing from a single tank of gas.

There are no videos in action, but there is a single ‘smoke test' video showing the front rotor in action. Just be sure not to put your hand in there otherwise you will certainly end up closer to Luke Skywalker than nature intended.

KitGuru says: Will this ever become mainstream? Too many risks of injury for the safety conscious authorities we feel.

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