If you’ve ever been to Dubai, or seen pictures of Dubai, you’ll know that the city is the epitome of futuristic design, and parts of it look like something out of a sci-fi film.

That effect is going to be enhanced even more in the near future, now that their police force is training to ride hoverbikes.

According to Mashable, the Dubai police have begun training crews to ride Hoversurf’s S3 2019 Hoverbike, an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle that is capable of hovering above the ground and moving forward at high speeds.

The vehicle looks similar to the speeder bikes in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Check it out:

The Dubai police are training two crews to ride hoverbikes as part of a ‘first responder’ initiative. The ‘first responder unit’ will be able to get to hard to reach areas that would be difficult to access with a regular vehicle.

Though the force only has one Hoverbike right now and hopes to have them ready for real use by 2020, Hoversurf insists it’s ready to build upwards of 40 if the Dubai Police orders them.

The $150,000 Hoverbike is made of carbon fiber, but still weighs 253 pounds. It has four rotors for taking off vertically up to a recommended 16 feet off the ground, according to the company.

The bike is able to reach speeds of almost 100 kilometres per hour. Unfortunately, at this stage flight time is limited to between 10-25 minutes with a pilot.

I’ve never had law-enforcement aspirations, but throw a hoverbike into the mix and I might reconsider.

They are very, very cool.

[source:mashable]