Paris - French inventor Franky Zapata on Sunday successfully
crossed the English Channel on his high-speed hoverboard, nine days
after a failed attempt saw him fished out of the sea.
Zapata took off from Sangatte, near the French port of Calais, at
8:16 am (0616 GMT) and landed at Saint Margaret's Bay near Dover
about 22 minutes later, after a midway refuelling stop.
The 40-year-old former jetski champion told reporters he had "got a
huge kick" out of his final approach to the cliffs of Dover at what
he said were speeds of 160 to 170 kilometres per hour.
His wife Krystel saw him off from the French coast as he soared into
the air on his invention, the Flyboard Air, which is powered by
multiple kerosene-fuelled turbine engines.
Zapata had put in 16-hour days preparing his machine for the new
attempt after his July 25 debacle, when it hit off the boat-mounted
refuelling platform and he lost control and ended up in the water.
Les images de l'exploit de Franky Zapata depuis les hélicoptères qui le suivaient au-dessus de la Manche pic.twitter.com/hXow2cKuWp
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) August 4, 2019
As he descended onto a landing platform above the cliffs at Saint
Margaret's Bay after the 35-kilometre crossing, he raised his fist in
the air and then embraced an assistant.
Elated as he spoke to press, he broke down in tears minutes
afterwards when he took a phone call from his young son.
Zapata said he was tired: "I want a holiday, but above all I want to
thank my team."
Franky Zapata takes to the air in Sangatte, Northern France, at the start of his attempt to cross the channel from France to England. Picture: Michel Spingler/AP
It was "a perfect day," Krystel Zapata told reporters on the other
side of the Channel. "Franky's not the type for parties but I think
we're going to celebrate this all the same with the team."
The inventor told reporters that he had begun to feel sore as he
approached the English coast but forced himself to enjoy the end of
the flight.
Franky Zapata successfully traversed the English Channel on a flying board after his first attempt failed when he crashed into a refuelling boat 20 kilometres (12 miles) into the trip. Picture: Michel Spingler/AP
"I put on another 20 kilometres per hour and really, there, the last
five or 10 kilometres, I got a huge kick out of it," he said. "It was
crazy, really, to see the coast getting closer like that."
Zapata and his Flyboard Air first hit world headlines last month when
he took part in a display of new military technology at the Bastille
Day parade in Paris.
French inventor Franky Zapata lands near St. Margaret's beach, Dover after crossing the Channel on a flying board. Picture: Steve Parsons/PA via AP
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel
looked on as he swooped and hovered high over the city's central
Place de la Concorde, clutching a rifle.
French Defence Minister Florence Parly took to Twitter to
congratulate Zapata on his latest feat with a reference to Hollywood
superheroes.
"It's not the return of the Avengers - it's reality," Parly tweeted.
French inventor Franky Zapata lands near St. Margaret's beach, Dover after crossing the Channel on a flying board. Picture: Steve Parsons/PA via AP
The Channel crossing, even though he did it in two stretches, by far
beats the almost 2.3-kilometre flight that won Zapata a Guinness
World Record in 2016 for the longest ever hoverboard flight.
"Today I want to say that nobody on our team will forget this
moment," Zapata said in an emotional press conference after returning
to French soil. "It is engraved on our hearts forever."
French inventor Franky Zapata flies near St. Margaret's beach, Dover after crossing the Channel on a flying board. Picture: Steve Parsons/PA via AP
The night before his successful second attempt at the crossing, he
got a "tough" message from his young son that prompted him to recheck
all his equipment and precautions, he told press.
French inventor Franky Zapata poses with a placard after he succeeded in crossing the English Channel on a jet-powered Flyboard he designed in Bleriot Plage, France. Picture: Johanna Geron/Reuters
"You ask yourself: 'Am I not going too far?' I have the right to
achieve my dreams but I don't have the right to destroy his," Zapata
said.