Back in Time Page #10

and phone video conferencing right.

The drones walking dogs.

We got the Google glasses right.

TVs with touchscreen and

hundreds of different channels.

We decided that what we were gonna

do was just have fun with the future.

We knew we weren't

gonna get it right.

We knew that there weren't gonna be

flying cars. That we were sure of.

No one is ever gonna be

in a flying car.

No one wants to fly in a car.

It's too scary.

People are scared

to leave the ground.

The limits of physics don't prevent

us from having flying cars.

The reasons that we don't have flying

cars today are really societal.

Aviation evolved

in a certain way,

And driving on the ground

evolved in a certain way.

These are human constructs,

so they can be changed.

But we have to show people, hey,

it can actually be better than this,

And there is no physical law that we are

breaking to make it better than this.

We just have to show people, hey,

this is what it could be like.

It could be a whole lot

better than it is today.

Terrafugia is

a flying car company.

We're developing a practical

vision for the future

And creating the path for how

to get from where we are today

To a world with flying cars

that anybody can use.

Growing up, I was definitely inspired

by movies like "back to the future"

And that vision of the delorean lifting

off and shooting over everybody.

And I was fascinated

with aviation

And trying to make practical

personal aviation.

We have these images of people

flying in lanes and stuff like that.

Why would you fly in a lane if you've

got all this three-Dimensional space?

You know, you need lanes

on the ground,

Because you need to know where the

other cars are gonna be running,

So that you can have people playing

over here or something like that.

Up in the air,

you don't need lanes, right?

You need to know where all the other

aircraft are, and you need to avoid them.

But you don't need

a lane of traffic

In order to know

where the other aircraft are.

So I think the future

is gonna be a little different

Than it was laid out

in "back to the future,"

But the idea behind it

is the right idea,

And that's where we wanna go.

I need to borrow your...

that was a true,

total invention of "back to the future ii."

But what's cool is that people

are trying to invent them now.

There's this old saying

that life imitates art.

And the rocket scientist

Robert Goddard,

He always said that

what inspired him to do rocketry

Was reading Jules Verne's "from the

earth to the moon" when he was a kid.

So, Bob and I cook up

this idea of hoverboards.

That's just a riff on our skateboard

chase from the first movie,

But, wow, does that capture

everybody's imagination.

The hendo hoverboard, I saw that,

and I got so excited. Wow!

And it's working on magnetism,

which was the idea that we had.

So how cool is that?

When you look

at the building industry,

The largest industry

in the U.S.,

It's a very difficult

thing to change.

But there's a better way

to build.

And so, in July of this year,

July of 2014,

We had a patent issued for something

we've been working on for a long time.

And that is, essentially,

a three-Part foundation system.

One of the key components of this

three-Part foundation system

Is something we call

the buffer medium.

And that buffer medium can be a liquid,

it can be a gas,

And as we discovered, why not

an electromagnetic field?

If you can hover a 50,000-Kilogram train,

why not a house?

However, the new maglev trains

in Japan, for instance,

Have to be going 170 kilometers

per hour to levitate.

There was no good way

to levitate a stationary object.

What if you had a train that levitated,

and that train went in a circle?

Now, what if that train was

the same length as the track?

You essentially have a stationary

object relative to the earth,

When you realize you can hover a

dynamic load in a stationary position,

Something that has been

impossible up till now...

that's the

first thing that comes to mind.

What better

way to demonstrate this...

Is a hoverboard? Absolutely.

We got letters from kids all

over the world wanting to know,

"Can I have a hoverboard?

Can I have one, please?"

Yeah, for a couple years when I was young,

I thought that thing was real.

Well, that little behind the scenes

thing that was put out early on.

Robert Zemeckis saying,

"oh, they're real,

"And the only reason

that we don't release them

"Is parents don't think

they're gonna be very safe."

That did affect

a lot of kids from the '80s.

I remember seeing

the Zemeckis interview,

And he said

hoverboards were real.

Just the parents' groups have not

let toy manufacturers make them,

But we got our hands on some.

I remember being

with a couple of my friends

And saying, "yeah, yeah,

I road a hoverboard."

And they were all like,

"no, you didn't."

And I said, "nope, it's true.

I road a hoverboard."

True story. I was walking through the mall,

and a scientist walked up to me,

And he asked if I wanted to be in a select

group of kids to test hoverboard technology.

Yeah, I call bullcrap.

It was really not fun

doing the hoverboard.

What you gotta do

is you gotta aim it.

You gotta kind of pop it

on an arc.

- Okay.

- Okay?

- Ready?

- Ready.

We didn't have

computer-Generated images in those days,

And we had to have

actors hanging on wires.

And the wires

had to be really thin,

'Cause you couldn't

graft them out on the computer.

You had to hid them

from the camera.

And it was really

time-Consuming,

And it was really, really,

difficult to do.

I mean, people think

that it looked so smooth,

But I this thing stapled to my foot,

and I was dangling from wires.

Anyone who's probably, like,

15 and under...

I don't know unless their parents show them

"back to the future,"

If it's an important movie to them,

they'll see it.

I know that Sean's parents love

the movie and showed it to him,

I don't know that he has that

passion for it that I did.

What he loved was watching

the hoverboarding videos

And getting to do that scene where

he's up in the tree hoverboarding.

Yippee! Here I am,

Testing out the world's first

actual hover...

ow! Ow! It's squishing my parts.

He was really excited

to do that.

I mean, you know,

anyone wants to ride a hoverboard.

It's a fantasy everyone wants to live,

and he got to do it.

It's pretty amazing.

May 31, 2013,

And you're looking at the world's

first ridable hoverboard.

Because we were in our kitchen,

and we had to literally chain it down,

Because we had no idea

How powerful this beast

of a hoverboard was.

All right, it's hovering, guys.

It was one of those

moments where I felt like I was 10.

I mean, it was one of those really

powerful moments of what was yet to come.

It was just the beginning.

- See, that chokes me up.

- It does.

Okay, check the escs.

I'm gonna keep rolling here.

- Unbelievable, Jill.

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