French Inventor Will Cross English Channel On A Jet-Powered Hoverboard

Franky Zapata, the creator of Flyboard Air, announced that he would cross the English Channel on a hoverboard powered by jet engines this Thursday to celebrate the 110^th anniversary of the very first flight between Britain and France. According to Zapata, the journey would be between St Margaret’s Bay and Sangatte and took about 20 minutes with a speed of 140 km/h.

This will not be an easy task for the inventor as he claimed that it took an average person up to 100 hours of practice on a Flyboard powered by water to be able to stand upright on the Flyboard Air powered by jet engines.

Zapata said that in the last demonstration on Bastille Day used merely 3% of the capacity of the hoverboard, but this Thursday’s crossing would call for 99.9%. He also projected that his chance of having a successful flight was 30%.

The hoverboard has five turbo engines onboard, each of them can yield about 250 horsepower. It consists of three parts, the fuel tank that the driver will wear, the board, and the remote control. This design means that the Flyboard Air can only stay airborne for up to 10 minutes. So the inventor will have to stop midway for a refill.

At first, the inventor planned to have two refueling ship stations, but due to French maritime authority’s concerns, he can now use only one. He may touch down on the ship for refill or hoover over it to make sure that the journey is uninterrupted.

Zapata is a record holder for making the longest flight on a hoverboard, covering the distance of 2,252 meters along France’s south coast. However, this time, he will make a journey ten times as long as that of the last trip. We do not know how this journey turns out, but we can be sure that he has successfully crashed into the water before. Zapata did not suffer from any severe injury, but the FlyBoard Air was broken entirely.

The French armed force has expressed interest in making the Flyboard Air a tool for either assault or logistics. Last year, Zapata was granted €1.3m by the country’s government to develop his hoverboard.