The United States Army and a British Aeronautics company are partnering up to bring hoverbikes to reality because the world could always use a little more Star Wars. Malloy Aeronautics has been developing the technology for years but has now reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Defense to take things further. While cool as hell, the vehicles are also more practical options for search and rescue or cargo delivery missions for safety reasons. Malloy even promises it'll be cheaper.
Marketing sales director Grant Stapletontold Reuters: "There are a lot of advantages of the Hoverbike over a regular helicopter. Primarily there's safety. With adducted rotors you immediately not only protect people and property if you were to bump into them, but if you ever were to bump into somebody or property it's going to bring the aircraft out of the air. So there's a considerable safety level which is a considerably high level of safety involved there."
Malloy still needs to build full-scale models before it even gets to the military-grade prototypes. But it's an exciting development nonetheless, and now we just wait patiently for lightsabers.
