This Real-Life Star Wars Speeder Bike Goes Almost 125 MPH

A Poland-based startup called Volonaut just dropped footage of its new jet-powered hoverbike called the Airbike. Remember the speeder chase scene through the forests of Endor in Return of the Jedi? Like that, but no one riding who will be writing this one in real life is a Jedi.

Star Wars is the obvious cultural touchstone here, so much so that while Volonaut released a three-minute-long demo video showing off the Airbike with no special effects wizardry to enhance its performance…

The company also released a Star Wars-themed video on May 4, in case what they were going for still wasn’t clear enough.

They dressed a driver like an imperial scout trooper and had them hover through a dense forest, overlaying Star Wars sound effects and John Williams score to sell the fantasy of being a space Nazi writing a hoverbike.

They are marketing the Airbike as a “superbike for the skies” that skips propellers in favor of jet engines. Inventor Tomasz Patan, who previously built an eight-motor, electric flying pod called the Jetson ONE (can you guess where he got his inspiration for that?), decided that wasn’t dangerous enough and slapped rockets onto a bicycle frame.

The result is an impressive hover vehicle for one with a top speed of 124 mph. Riders get a 360-degree view while they “become one with the machine,” a bit of marketing ad copy that could very easily be applied to the merging of man and machine that will instantaneously occur when someone slams into a tree at 124 mph.

Volonaut is hyping up the Airbike’s top speed because they haven’t released any of its other specs, including details on its engine or its range. By the look of it, it seems like it takes a tremendous amount of power to keep those engines on, so don’t expect to Airbike across the United States anytime soon with your leather-clad gang of airbikers in tow.