A former jetski champion and French military reservist who became known as the “flying soldier” after he invented a jet-powered hoverboard will attempt to cross the Channel this week.
Franky Zapata, who impressed France with a demonstration of his flyboard at this year’s Bastille Day parade, has said he will make the crossing on Thursday to mark the 110th anniversary of Louis Blériot’s first cross-Channel airplane flight.
Zapata, 40, expects to cross from Sangatte near Calais to St Margaret’s Bay near Dover in 20 minutes, refuelling halfway and reaching speeds of up to 86.9mph (140km/h).
“It’s the realisation of a dream,” the inventor told Le Parisien, adding that he was “very stressed”. He said the Bastille Day demonstration was easy by comparison.
“I used 3% of the machine’s capabilities and I’ll need 99% for the Channel. It won’t be easy at all and I reckon I’ve a 30% chance of succeeding,” he said.
Zapata said his flight had been approved by civil aviation authorities but not maritime officials who insisted stationing a ship to refuel the flyboard would pose a risk to shipping in the busy Channel.
“We have advised against the crossing because it is extremely dangerous given the traffic in the Channel, one of the busiest (shipping) straits in the world,” the French maritime authority said.
An official added that authorities were not banning the crossing and had asked Zapata to inform the French coastal search and rescue team before he took off “in case of any problems”.
Zapata said the decision had forced him to refuel once midway, instead of twice as he had planned – once in French waters, once in UK waters.
“This has made the challenge 10 times more difficult,” Zapata said. “It’s a completely arbitrary and unreasonable decision.”
He added that the take-off time would depend on weather conditions and he had not yet decided whether to refuel the kerosene-powered flyboard by landing on a ship or hovering over it, the latter being more risky but which would enable him to claim a true “cross-Channel flight”.
At France’s Bastille Day parade on 14 July, the president, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and other European leaders watched as Zapata flew above the Champs-Elysées brandishing a rifle.
Florence Parly, the French armed forces minister, said the flyboard could be “tested for different kinds of uses, for example as a flying logistical platform or, indeed, as an assault platform”.
Zapata was awarded a €1.3m grant for his Flyboard Air from the French government defence and procurement agency) last December. It is powered by five mini turbo engines and can run autonomously for about 10 minutes and reach speeds of up to 118mph (190km/h).
