French inventor Franky Zapata has successfully crossed the English Channel for the first time on a jet-powered flyboard. Zapata took off from Sangatte, near Calais and landed in St Margaret’s Bay in 2019.
The invention, powered by a backpack filled with kerosene, completed the 35.4km journey in 22 minutes. Zapata, a former jet-ski champion, failed in his first attempt to cross the Channel on July 25 after complications while refuelling.
Recently, one such technology has been demonstrated in a viral video that people are liking. In this video shared on Instagram, a man can be seen flying high like a bird all by himself and he also lands slowly and gracefully like a bird. People liked his way of flying and landing. The special thing about it is that he didn’t have to carry any heavy equipment.
In the caption of the video, it is called a Futuristic Flyboard. It states that Franky Zapata is a French watercraft pilot who invented the Flyboard and Flyboard Air and is the founder of Zapata Racing. The description of the gadget also states that ZR’s hoverboard, invented in 2014, is a hybrid of a surfboard and a skateboard. It is powered by a remote-controlled watercraft that drives a water pump.
The video was shared by an account named Journeyastral. It was viewed by 4.9 million and 49 lakh people and around 1.5 lakh people also liked it. The comments also expressed this. One user has said that cartoons and superheroes are now coming alive. Another user said that this will help in clearing traffic jams.
Meanwhile, Zapata’s company Z-AIR received a €1.3 million (Rs 11,74,40,175) grant from the French military in December 2018. However, he said that the Flyboard was not yet suitable for military use due to the noise it makes and the challenge of learning to fly the device. In an interview with radio station France Inter, French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly said that the Flyboard could eventually be suitable “for example as a flying logistical platform or even as an attack platform”.
In 2017, Zapata provided the U.S. Army with demonstrations of the Flyboard Air (jet-powered hoverboard), referred to in some news reports as the EZ-Fly, which could be priced at $250,000 (Rs 2.08 crore) per unit. July 2019 report provided no evidence of serious interest from the American military in this new technology.
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