A Canadian inventor has set a new world record for hoverboard flight distance, hovering 5m over water for 276m.

Catalin Alexandru Duru flew over Lake Ouareau in Quebec, Canada, reaching 275.9m before the batteries ran out.

“I wanted to showcase that a stable flight can be achieved on a hoverboard and a human could stand and control with their feet,” said Duru, after travelling five times the distance needed to set the Guinness World Record.

Hoverboards have made headlines thanks to the Hendo board, which, like a maglev train, uses magnetic repulsion to float a couple of centimetres above a floor made of non-ferrous metal such as copper or aluminium.

Duru’s hoverboard, by contrast, is more familiar, using a series of propellers much like a drone, to lift the board and its rider up to 5m above the surface.

The board, which looks more like the Green Goblin’s glider than a skateboard, took 12 months to design and build and can be used anywhere, although its short flight time means it is not currently a practical means of transport.

Hoverboards were made part of science fiction folklore by the classic 1989 film Back to the Future II, starring Michael J Fox as Marty McFly.

McFly travelled to the future, set in October 2015. While many science-fiction predictions have become reality, with tablets, smartphones and wearable miniature computers, kids and adults the world over have dreamed of real, working hoverboards.

While Hendo’s maglev board might mirror more closely the image portrayed in Back to the Future II, Duru’s propeller-based system is much more likely to work in the real world – if only for a minute.

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