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Tuesday 21 February 2017 10:08 am

WATCH: The world’s first actual real hoverbike has been tested in a warehouse and it’s insane

By: Emma Haslett

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Admit it: you've been waiting for this. A San Francisco-based company has said it's tested out the first-ever fully-manned hoverbike – and it has the footage to prove it. 

Hoversurf, which has experimented with technology including a hover-taxi and a drone-powered jetpack, said its Scorpion single-seat aircraft can be flown "with the same simplicity as riding a bike". 

The bike, which is the size and shape of a "compact dirt bike", uses quadcopter drone technology and is aimed at putting "speed, agility and stability of flight [into] the hands of amateur [pilots]". 

The Daily Mail reported the bike can carry 19 stone in weight, hovering at 33 feet and hitting speeds of 30 miles per hour. 

It can stay in the air for 27 minutes (and you thought Tesla owners had range anxiety) – and is available to buy, for a cool $150,000 (£120,700).

Read more: Amazon wants to create huge airship warehouses to speed up drone deliveries

Game of drones

Hoversurf isn't the first company to experiment with people-sized drones: last year Chinese company Ehang unveiled what it claimed was the world's first driverless flying car. 

The carbon-fibre vehicle, unveiled at the CES technology show, travels at speeds of up to 60mph, at low altitudes (under 500m). 

But the vehicle only lasts 23 minutes – after that, passengers will have to get out and walk (or wait between two and four hours for it to charge). 

In 2015 car giant Lexus said it had created a real, working hoverboard, dubbed Slide, which used magnets inside a chassis to levitate.

Rather unnervingly considering the subsequent fiasco with exploding two-wheeled "hoverboards", the sleek wooden board looked like it was smoking – but that was thanks to the liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors inside the board. 

Meanwhile, Amazon has suggested it may one day deliver packages using a system of drones and parachutes, which will deploy "at altitude" and "monitor and adjust package trajectory during descent". 

Read more: It's time to start preparing for the City of Drones

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