While the automotive world is busy debating when will a fully-charged electric future arrive in different cities of the world, a totally different and sci-fi sort of transportation is taking off and flying forward – quite literally. Welcome to the world of Personal Aerial Vehicles that are capable of VTOL – vertical take off and landing. I am talking about the jet-powered ‘flyboard’ on which its inventor Franky Zapata made the first-ever successful English Channel crossing on he first Sunday of this month.
Fact 1: Franky Zapata is a French inventor, a former jet-ski champion and founder of Zapata Racing.
Face 2: Flyboard Air, Zapata’s invention, is an advanced hoverboard powered by five small jets, fuelled by a kerosene-filled backpack, and touted to fly at up to 87 miles per hour (140 kmph) at an altitude of 50 to 65 feet.
Fact 3: Calais, France to Dover, England has been the favourite channel crossing route for all sorts of adventurers, as it is the shortest.
So, Franky Zapata climbed atop his Flyboard Air and took off from Sangatte, near Calais, at 06:17 GMT on Sunday and landed in St Margaret’s Bay in Dover completing the 22-mile (35.4 km) journey in 22 minutes, during which he had reached speeds of up to 106 mph (170 kmph) according to his account of the journey shared with the waiting crowds in Dover.
Forty year old Zapata’s ambitious spirit moves even faster than his flyboard. His successful Channel crossing attempt came just 10 days since his failed first attempt. On 25th July, his first journey had coincided with the historic beginning of cross-channel flights, when Louis Blériot became the first man to fly between Continental Europe and Britain (Calais to Dover) 110 years ago. During his first crossing, switching to another backpack in the middle of the journey was the biggest challenge. Zapata’s attempt to make a fuel change stop by landing in a boat and platform in the middle of the sea did not go as planned. “When I got closer to the platform, the boat took a wave and it hit the foot of the machine and broke it… I lost balance, I fell in the water. The flyboard is damaged…” Zapata was obviously disappointed.
However, on Sunday 4th August, he was back in air on his flyboard, with a larger boat and platform waiting for his fuel change, and three helicopters escorting him across the sky. “We made a machine three years ago… and now we’ve crossed the Channel, it’s crazy,” the elated Zapata told reporters before tears overwhelmed him. As the flying ambassador for his invention, Franky Zapata has been cleverly choosing his stages. During the annual Bastille Day parade in Paris in July, he claimed plenty of screen time as part of a military display, riding his flyboard with a rifle in hand. In 2014, Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan had performed several crazy stunts in his film Bang Bang, the most catchy of which was one where he emerges from the water on ‘an unusual contraption’.
While the world celebrates his accomplishment now, the journey wasn’t without its hurdles. When he graduated from propelling his machine using water jets and fitted it with small jet engines, the French aviation authorities initially refused him the permission to fly. When he continued, he was arrested in 2017 and warned to stop. But today, things have changed. France’s military has given his company, Z-AIR, a €1.3m ($1.4m) grant, seeking to develop the technology for itself as a “flying logistical platform” or as an “assault platform” as described by words of French Defence Minister Florence Parly. As Zapata said after his flight, “Whether this is a historic event or not, I’m not the one to decide that, time will tell.”
Pictures screen shot videos courtesy: https://www.zapata.com/en and Instagram: frankyzapata
