--- title: Hoverboards, Jetpacks, and Flying Cars: Where Are They? | TIME description: It's difficult to get things and people to hover in midair, which helps explain why jetpacks aren't everywhere yet. canonical: https://time.com/video/qhRUufA3/ og:title: Hoverboards, Jetpacks, and Flying Cars: Where Are They? og:description: It's difficult to get things and people to hover in midair, which helps explain why jetpacks aren't everywhere yet. og:url: https://time.com/video/qhRUufA3/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qhRUufA3/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hoverboards, Jetpacks, and Flying Cars: Where Are They? twitter:description: It's difficult to get things and people to hover in midair, which helps explain why jetpacks aren't everywhere yet. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qhRUufA3/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Hoverboards, Jetpacks, and Flying Cars: Where Are They? > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Hoverboards, Jetpacks, and Flying Cars: Where Are They? [Watch (HLS stream): Hoverboards, Jetpacks, and Flying Cars: Where Are They?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qhRUufA3.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2015-08-05. It's difficult to get things and people to hover in midair, which helps explain why jetpacks aren't everywhere yet._ --- Jul 27, 2023 6:37 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [France Bans Hoverboard Inventor From Flying Hoverboards](/video/MvInjp4T/) ### France Bans Hoverboard Inventor From Flying Hoverboards [Clouds Aren't Helping Climate Control](/video/vkWnDZv3/) ### Clouds Aren't Helping Climate Control [More People Are Flying, But Airline Prices Aren't Dropping](/video/2vMKFp73/) ### More People Are Flying, But Airline Prices Aren't Dropping --- ## Transcript According to Doc Brown's calendar, it's officially the future, so where's our flying everything? Some of our slow progress is thanks to a regulatory vacuum, but most of it is thanks to plain old physics. Lexus tested out an early version of the hover board, which uses nitrogen and cooled superconducting magnets To float and it can support a person. The thing about super conducting magnets is they have to stay chilled down to work and they have to stay above the magnetic track they push off of. That's how Lexis did it too. And this board requires a copperfield hover surface to generate the required magnetic fields. So, true hover boards are out until we figure out how to free them from their magnetic faces. Sorry, Marty McFly. Jetpacks are a tall order too in that you have to point enough energy to lift a human down at the ground without setting your feet on fire. There are fixed wing jetpacks but that's technically using a wing surface to generate lift rather than a true jetpack. The Martin jetpack is technically a duct [ UNKNOWN ] pack but that doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same way. Pumped water rocket packs actually use jets of something pointed straight down but they're altitude limited. Okay, so what about our flying cars at least? Concepts are everywhere. Terrafugia started showing off this crazy commuter just last month. And even DARPA has shown interest in something that might fly as easily as it drives. But infrastructure and regulation haven't caught up yet. Mostly because the government has never had to come up with rules for something that's simultaneously a car and a plane. Okay, so maybe Back to the Future was just too far ahead of its time. 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