Sangatte (France) (AFP)
On his second attempt, the French Franky Zapata, nicknamed "the flying man", managed Sunday the feat of crossing the Channel standing on his "Flyboard" in twenty minutes, after a short halt halfway on a boat to refuel his flying machine with kerosene.
The 40-year-old man from Marseilles (south-east) took off around 6:15 GMT from the French beach of Sangatte (north) in a deafening roar and under the eyes of hundreds of curious, ten days after his failure.
Helmeted and harnessed, dressed in black, he flew to St Margaret's Bay on the English side, which he managed to reach in about twenty minutes by flying over the sea at 15/20 meters. This time, he "landed easily on the boat, he changed his backpack and went away" a few seconds later, said his wife Krystel.
The former world and European jet ski champion then landed on the British side after having traveled the 35 km of standing strait on his flying machine equipped with five mini-turbojets that allow him to take off and evolve to 190 km / h, with a range of ten minutes. He hugged a member of his team who congratulated him.
"Everything went well, even if it was still complicated (for refueling on the boat) ... Then I saw England coming closer and I tried to take pleasure not to think about pain, burning in the legs! " told the press just after his arrival Franky Zapata, paying tribute to "teamwork".
He flew "at 160/170 km / h almost all along" the crossing, he said, informed by the speedometer installed in his helmet.
Franky Zapata, who said he was "tired" and now needs "a vacation", has other challenges in mind: to finish his "flying car" but also to be "the first to surf the powder in the clouds". flying so much higher.
He then burst into tears when his young son told him on the phone, "You're the best, daddy!"
Franky Zapata is expected to return to France in the late morning, where he will hold a press conference around 13:00 GMT.
- Interest of the French special forces -
During his first attempt on July 25, 110 years to the day after the exploit of the Frenchman Louis Blériot, the first airman to cross the Channel, he had jumped from the same spot on his flying board, but had dropped a few minutes more late in English waters, after hitting the platform of the supply boat where he was trying to land.
Because of the distance, Franky Zapata was obliged, for this challenge to which he has been preparing for the last six months, to replenish kerosene, which he stores in his backpack.
For this second attempt, the man and his team chose for the refueling a "bigger" boat positioned in the French waters.
The former champion had to repair this week in his workshop near Marseille electronics and engines of his machine, damaged during his fall.
During his first attempt, Franky Zapata and his holding of the same name found a media echo, just a few days after a major showcase at the military parade of the French National Day on July 14 on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
That day, in front of French President Emmanuel Macron, he had offered a futuristic spectacle: rifle in hand, he had stolen several tens of meters from the ground on his invention, "100% developed in France".
His invention had already been shown at the end of 2018 at the Paris Defense Innovation Forum. This flying platform is of interest to French special forces, who see it as "potential for employment in special operations in urban areas".
Since December 2018, his company Z-AIR has benefited from a grant of 1.3 million euros from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces to develop a new turbine in 3D printing.
Before creating his "Flyboard Air", Mr. Zapata "was flying" already on the water with his first aquatic Flyboard. The board was then "propelled over a body of water by the jet of the turbine of a marine motorbike".
bur-zl-dt-erd / lp / glr
© 2019 AFP