A stunning video has emerged showing a French inventor flying a real-life hoverboard across the Atlantic Ocean.
Franky Zapata, chief executive of Zapata Racing, created a stir online when he was filmed flying over the ocean just off the coast of France on a hoverboard that he says is available for the public to hire.
Telegraph.co.uk reports:
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Mr Zapata is riding the record-breaking Flyboard Air, which has previously hit the headlines for travelling at more than 34mph. He managed to travel 50 metres above the surface of the Atlantic for just under seven minutes in the most recent flight.
“This has really been a life’s work,” said Mr Zapata, who holds a world record for the most number of backflips in a minute using a water jet pack. “Who has never dreamt of leaping out of the water and soaring through the air, free of all constraints? This is the dream that is at the origin of the products we create.”
The Flyboard Air is a jet-powered board with four turbo engines, or an “Independent Propulsion Unit”, that propel it upwards and forwards when travelling over land or sea. It stabilises itself in a similar way to a drone and can reach heights of up to 10,000 ft and speeds of 92.3mph. The board can fly for around 10 minutes.
Previous versions of the Flyboard, which are on sale, use water propulsion to lift them and can only be used on lakes. They are available for between £1,500 and £9,600. While the Flyboard Air isn’t currently on sale, it can be rented from locations in the US and UK.
“Since 2016, we have fulfilled people’s dreams by giving them the opportunity to move through the air on a totally autonomous flying board,” said Mr Zapata.
People who want to use the Flyboard Air will need to spend 100 hours practicing over water before having to spend another 20 hours learning over land, Mr Zapata has previously said. It has been designed as a method of transport people could ultimately use to collect their bread in the morning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TREWk91cvE0
