Forget the hoverboard: This guy built a homemade hoverbike that works
Apr 29, 2016, 3:07 PM | Updated: 3:13 pm
Colin Furze, the completely daft but ingenious backyard engineer who brought you the jet-powered bicycle, has done it again.
Only this time, he’s airborne.
Furze’s latest invention, the hoverbike, was made with basic welding equipment and a lot of trial-and-error. The necessity for a light-weight design takes steering mechanisms, brakes, and even a seat out of the picture. Still, he gets it to work.
Furze lives in England. The high school dropout works as a plumber, but in recent years has turned in to something of a video-making mad scientist. His humble background and lack of concern for safety make his inventions even more amazing — and terrifying.
“The things I make are made with tools that proper engineers would laugh at but I’m proof you don’t need an expensive lathe and huge welder to create something amazing,” said Furze on the bio page of his website.
When YouTube commenters told Furze to set up a Kickstarter or GoFundMe, he replied “the best and easiest way to help me and my projects is to share the hell out of them, subscribe and tell everyone else to do the same.This way more companies will want to work with me and the budgets go up for more crazy stuff and you get to see it all for free anywhere in the world.”
The hoverbike was funded in part by Ford Motor Company, so it looks like his plan is working. Go to Furze’s YouTube channel to check out other insane projects like the Ice Bike, the Drift Trike and the 50 MPH Pram (stroller).