It seems back in the 1960's there was a movement to convince the public that we should all be riding Hover Scooters. Thanks to some classic footage from the archives of British Pathé we can see why we all don't have one in the garage.

Sure, we'll acknowledge it's a wicked cool concept — after all the Landspeeder was a hovercraft. The problem seems to be in the execution here.

First, it seems to operate best on the flattest surfaces; not something the streets of London are known for. Add to that the streets of London — and plenty of other cities I know — are small for this oversized craft.

All right, given the rural setting of this test video perhaps it was intended to be a shepherding device. I could see that working…nothing would get cows and sheep to shape up like a Hover Scooter chasing them down.

What's strange about that is that the video of the guy piloting this thing is in a jacket and tie. Not something most sheepherders wear. We have to give him credit though. He braves the pond and all its blowback without showing so much as a hair out of place.

And don't you love how proud the guy is when the test is through?

Back to the point though. It could be that there were just too many idiosyncrasies about just how or why people would use this thing for it to have taken off.

That and the massive, frightening fan at the front.

Still, the idea just won't die. A modern version of the hover scooter seems to have corrected that pesky fan issue. Unfortunately, it still hasn't corrected that pesky question of "what the hell do we do with this thing?"

Via Gizmodo