A BONKERS Frenchman has vowed to cross the English Channel this week on a high-speed hoverboard he built himself.
Jetski champion-turned-inventor Franky Zapata, 40, reckons he can make the 21-mile journey from France to England in 20 minutes.
Zapata’s jet-powered contraption, which he dubs the Flyboard Air, will hit speeds of 90mph.
He recently demonstrated the hoverboard’s capabilities as part of last week’s Bastille Day festivities in Paris.
But the tech whizz says the Channel crossing attempt – planned for Thursday – will be his biggest challenge yet.
“I used three per cent of the machine’s capabilities [on Bastille Day], and I’ll need 99 per cent for the Channel,” Zapata told The Guardian.
“It won’t be easy at all, and I reckon I’ve a 30 per cent chance of succeeding.”
Zapata’s trip will take him from Sangatte near Calais to St Margaret’s Bay near Dover.
He’ll have to refuel the kerosene-powered Flyboard halfway, either by landing it on a boat or by funnelling fuel into it as it hovers above the sea.
France’s hoverboard hero says the journey should take 20 minutes, weather permitted.
That’s a fair bit faster than the average ferry (90 minutes) and even a trip through the Channel Tunnel (35 minutes).
If successful, Zapata’s 21-mile trip will smash the record for the longest hoverboard flight. The Frenchman set the current record of 1.4 miles himself in 2016.
Here are the numbers you need to know...
The attempt on July 25 will mark the 110th anniversary of the first aerial crossing of the Channel.
French inventor Louis Blériot flew from Calais to Dover in 40 minutes aboard a tiny, frail monoplane strapped to a motorbike engine.
Unlike most hoverboards, Zapata’s contraption supposedly uses a jet turbine engine, instead of using water to lift the user off the ground.
It is claimed that the model can fly users to a height of 10,000ft.
The entrepreneur from Marseilles developed the board in his garage at home.
It has a top speed of 118mph and can stay in the air for up to 10 minutes, according to Zapata.
The former jet ski champ hopes to sell the board to the French military, which has already forked out £1.2million for a grant to test its potential applications.
Florence Parly, France’s armed forces minister, says the Flyboard could be “tested for different kinds of uses, for example as a flying logistical platform or, indeed, as an assault platform”.
In other news, a wacky inventor recently built a flying “drone car” that can soar over traffic jams.
Segway hoverboards can be remotely controlled by hackers with terrifying – and hilarious – results.
Segway recently invented a pair of crazy self-balancing rollerskates.
Do you think Zapata will make the crossing in one piece? Let us know in the comments!
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