Inventor's Hovercraft Goes Viral After YouTuber Takes a Ride

An ingenious compact hovercraft created by Hideyasu Ito, an inventor in Tokyo, Japan, went viral after British YouTube creator Tom Scott published a video about the contraption in early April.

Hideyasu Ito told Scott that he began building micro-hovercrafts using cheap leaf blowers in 2013 and first showcased a prototype in September at the Maker Faire technology convention in Tokyo, where it captured Scott’s attention.

This clip, which Ito posted on Twitter, shows a demonstration flight at the convention in Tokyo.

At the end of Scott’s YouTube video, Ito reveals another prototype half the size of the one debuted in September.“It’s like I’ve made a cross between a car and a motorcycle,” Ito says, before telling Scott he plans to go even smaller.

“I want to try to make hovercrafts that you can wear on your feet. That would be fun,” he says. Credit: Hideyasu Ito via Storyful

Video transcript

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