Inventor who starred in viral CBC hoverboard video aims higher
Video of Alexandru Duru flying has now reached over 320 million people through social media
Watch Reg Sherren's documentary Amazing Young Canadians, which follows the incredible scientific achievements among high school students from coast to coast to coast, on Saturday at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. ET and Sunday at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET on CBC News Network.
Omni Hoverboards is still the same cluttered hodgepodge of electronic equipment, dirty dishes, and science experiments as it was one year ago. The warehouse in old Montreal is where inventor Alexandru Duru made his dream come true.
His dream was to fly — to really fly. What came out of his head was a cross between Michael J. Fox's ride in Back to the Future, and the flying machine the Goblin wreaked havoc on in Spider-Man.
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But Duru's machine had a style all its own, with its webbed carbon fibre base, snowboarding harnesses to anchor his feet, and a pair of pliers operating as an accelerator. But with its eight electric motors, it could lift him to the heavens.
And when the world found out, things really started to take off. The CBC News video of Duru flying has now reached over 320 million people through social media, and attracted interest and investment from around the world.
"Well, you know, we've got people calling us from everywhere," Duru told CBC News. "We've been to Japan. We've been to Spain, had people flying in from Germany.
"We've been lots of places, got some contracts, managed to actually show the machine is paying us, and with this money we can develop more things."
He is doing more things, like hiring more people.
In one corner, new design engineers are working to develop a spine surgery simulator, or robotics for a production line. But the big focus is still the next generation of his hoverboard, his flying machine.
It's all highly secretive, as competitors have popped up in other parts of the world. But there are clues to be found to the new design — Omni engineers seem to be testing a giant propeller blade instead of the eight smaller ones being used now. There are parts for a high performance gas combustion motor. Others are working on ways to trim weight.
Will the next generation run on gasoline with just two large props?
"All things are on the table," says Duru.
For example, a team of students from a nearby college is calibrating a new Bluetooth remote controller.
"So it's the main port with which a user would interact with the board," said Jean-Eve Berton, one of the students on the project.
Is that going to replace the pliers? "Exactly," he says, laughing.
As to whether there is now a working prototype, Duru just grins and says: "Things are going very well. I may have something to show you by the end of the year."
Watch the full documentary Amazing Young Canadians below:
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