Humans have been grounded for most of their existence. From Nostradamus and beyond, humans have dreamed of sprouting wings and touching the clouds. When the Wright brothers first got off the ground and into the air in 1903, the course of human histroy changed forever. Now you’re considered an oddity if you haven’t floated up above the clouds and seen the Earth from a stratospheric perspective.

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The initial taste of flight has spawned an incredible addiction for many human beings. The limits of what our bodies can handle are being pushed to the extreme; we are discovering new ways of getting airborne. In the future, we will take off vertically from a standstill. Gravity may become a thing of the past. Here are a few examples of how this hover technology is making it’s way into our lives today and in the future.

The flux capacitor, hoverboard, and self-tying shoes were all fantastic ideas stemming from the 1980′s silver screen trilogy ‘Back To The Future’. While it looks like we’re still a little ways away from time-travel, and are still working out the kinks on the hoverboard, the latter of the three aforementioned inventions has been kick-started into reality.