It was Back to the Future II that made a generation of children dream of travelling by hoverboard.

In the 1989 film, the hero Marty McFly escapes from his arch nemesis Biff by jumping on a flying skateboard.

But it wasn’t until 2011 that inventor Shane Chen came up with the next best thing – a motorised skateboard that moves intuitively and gives the rider a feeling of floating.

The creation became the must-have toy of 2015 and social media was flooded with videos of celebrities trying it out.

But the hoverboard never brought riches for Shane. He tells Vicky Farncombe how cheap knock-offs stole his profits and caused fires and accidents.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

(Photo: A hoverboard. Credit: Getty Images)