Science

The hoverboard and beyond (pictures)

Arx Pax has created the first real hoverboard -- but the company's aspirations go much, much farther.

James Martin

James Martin is the Managing Editor of Photography at CNET. His photos capture technology's impact on society - from the widening wealth gap in San Francisco, to the European refugee crisis and Rwanda's efforts to improve health care. From the technology pioneers of Google and Facebook, photographing Apple's Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai, to the most groundbreaking launches at Apple and NASA, his is a dream job for any documentary photography and journalist with a love for technology. Exhibited widely, syndicated and reprinted thousands of times over the years, James follows the people and places behind the technology changing our world, bringing their stories and ideas to life.

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James Martin

April 9, 2016 8:57 a.m. PT

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Even in a place known for its moonshots, Greg Henderson's Arx Pax might be the most ambitious startup you've never heard of in Silicon Valley.

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An engineer at Arx Pax shows off the startup's second-generation hoverboard, the Hendo 2.0.

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A skateboard deck might sit atop the Hendo 2.0's aluminum frame and four hover engines, but controlling the board is no easy feat.

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Arx Pax's scaled down model of a Hyperloop tube. Ten teams currently competing to design pods for Elon Musk's next-gen transit project are using Arx Pax's magnetic levitation technology.

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Arx Pax also wants to use the technology underlying its hoverboard to lift buildings before an earthquake, control infectious disease and even pull satellites through space.