We all know that geezerhood - old adage : if you do n’t deliver the goods , assay , try on again . Sometimes you ’ve just got to pick yourself up by your bootstraps , get back on your hoverboard , and give crosswalk that English Channel another go .
After Franky Zapatawiped outmid - path through his initiative attempt last month , the Gallic inventor finally completed the journeying on his second try Sunday , the Guardian describe , turn the theory of hoverboard invasion into a altogether valid awe .
you’re able to turn back out Zapata ’s flight — or rather , hover — in the video below :
Image: Michel Spingler ( (AP)
The 40 - year - old military reservist used his ego - designed Flyboard to make the 22 - mi trip , stopping halfway to refuel the supply of kerosene strapped to his back that was power his flight ( the machine can only run for 10 minutes ; otherwise France would have capture the Earth by now ) . Zipping between Sangatte , France and Dover , England take him all of about 20 minutes . Eat that , Marty McFly .
“ We made a simple machine three old age ago … and now we ’ve crossed the Channel , it ’s crazy . Whether this is a historical issue or not , I ’m not the one to decide that , time will order , ” Zapata told theBBCafter complete his visit directly out of science fiction .
He ’s been tinkering with the technology for this Flyboard model for three years ( a piss - powered hoverboard heinvented in 2011shared the same name ) in part with the help of a French military grant he received last class add up roughly $ 1.4 million . Last calendar month , Zapata also dazzled onlookers when he buzzed around at this year ’s Bastille Day military parade wielding a hopefully unloaded rifle , prompting France ’s armed forces minister to posit the thingmajig could be used “ as a flying logistic program or , indeed , as an assault platform , ” according toa Guardian study .
But if you ’re worried about an invasion of hoverboarding supersoldiers , fear not : Zapata alsosaid in 2017he was working with the U.S. military creating a like equipment for combat . Hopefully , they ’ll have figured out the 10 - minute flight boundary by then , otherwise we ’ll have a Vine - duration World War 3 .
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