This working Star Wars speeder bike seems too good to be true

Polish company Volonaut claims have to invented an “Airbike flying motorbike” that hovers and can fly at speeds up to 200kph. The compact flying machine takes us a step closer to the world imagined by Star Wars, where everyone seems to have some type of personal hovering transport.

While hover bikes are common across the Star Wars universe, the best known is the Aratech 74-Z, the speeder bikes used by the Empire’s scout troopers on the Endor during Return of the Jedi.

Volonaut Airbike - Official Launch - YouTube

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The vibes coming from Volonaut are similar, with the company saying that the Airbike’s computer provides the stabilisation so that it will hover with the rider on it. In a move that no one predicted, there are no propellers here, so this isn’t an evolution of drone tech which has typified recent flying devices of this type.

So how does it work? That’s the big question.

Does the Airbike really hover?

From the launch videos its clear that there’s a powerful down thruster that lifts the craft off the ground, but little else is detailed. While the rider appears to be freely flying around, there’s no word on how it’s powered or how long that power lasts for.

With Star Wars fans obviously in its sights, Volonaut has even recreated some of the iconic scenes from Return of the Jedi in its videos on X.

Describing the Airbike as a “superbike for the skies”, Volonaut goes on to confirm that the Airbike is much lighter than a typical motorbike, having used carbon fibre in its construction.

The company says that the project has just come out of “stealth” mode, so we’re hoping that it has more to share in the future about how the Airbike actually works, what it’s capable of and how much it might cost to buy one.

Until then, you’ll just have to keep pretending that you’re a scout trooper by striding the back of the sofa.