This real flying bike looks like something that should exist only in a science-fiction movie. The Volonaut Airbike carries a single rider above the ground on a remarkably compact machine, creating the surreal sight of someone riding through the air on a futuristic speeder.
But this isn’t CGI or a movie prop. The footage shows the Airbike prototype being test-flown in the real world, including through spaces barely wider than the vehicle itself.
A Science-Fiction Speeder Brought to Life
The Volonaut Airbike takes the familiar idea of a motorcycle and removes one rather important feature: the wheels. Instead, the rider sits astride a lightweight flying machine powered by compact jet turbines.
Volonaut says the Airbike uses a flight-computer stabilization system to help keep the vehicle controlled in the air. Its compact design also avoids the large exposed propellers normally associated with many personal flying machines.
That compact size becomes especially impressive in the test footage. The rider maneuvers through relatively tight spaces, showing how the machine can move through an environment that would be challenging for a much larger aircraft.
Seeing a real flying bike with a person actually riding it is what makes the footage so unusual. The silhouette immediately brings futuristic movie vehicles to mind, except this one is flying in the real world.
Why We Loved This Video
There are plenty of futuristic vehicle concepts that look amazing in computer renderings. It’s much more exciting when you can actually watch one leave the ground with a rider aboard.
The Airbike is especially fascinating because of how small and uncluttered it looks. From a distance, there seems to be almost nothing underneath the rider, which makes the sight of it hovering and moving through the air even harder to believe.
It’s an extraordinary glimpse of engineering turning an old science-fiction fantasy into something you can actually watch flying today.
