Los Gatos Startup Develops Working Hoverboard; Offers Technology For Others To Use

LOS GATOS (CBS SF) -- A Bay Area company has created what could be the first functioning hoverboard which can float above a surface as someone rides it like a skateboard.

Los Gatos-based Arx Pax, founded by husband-and-wife team of Greg and Jill Henderson, has developed a prototype hoverboard that uses a magnetic levitation system above a conductive metal surface.

Greg Henderson is an architect who had been researching maglev systems to figure out ways buildings can withstand earthquakes.

The couple say on a promotional video for the Hendo Hoverboard that it was developed to showcase their startup's hover technology, which their company is offering to other developers for a variety of uses.

"It's a proof of concept," said Greg Henderson on the promo video. "[It's] the simplest path to demonstrating our new technology in a way everyone can understand."

Arx Pax is making the hoverboard, and the technology behind it, available to investors on their Kickstarter campaign. Investors can receive what the company calls a Hover Engine developer kit, a white box that can also levitate and be controlled in addition to being able to be dismantled so others can use the technology in different ways.

"It is designed to be explored, taken apart, and analyzed, encouraging you to dare to wonder," according to the Kickstarter website.

The top investors, those pledging $10,000 and above, would receive their own working Hendo Hoverboard.