Tech

Franky Zapata, French Jet Skier, Sets Guinness World Record For Farthest Hoverboard Flight Record

Wayne Parker
First Posted: May 03, 2016 04:00 AM EDT

Over the past couple of years, we have witnessed how real, working hoverboards reshapes our idea about aviation, but none can actually fulfill the human imagination like Franky Zapata's Flyboard Air. This weekend, the French Jet Ski champion, Franky Zapata, has astoundingly smashed last year's hoverboard flight record by a Canadian inventor Catalin Alexandru Duru.

From a beach near Carry-le-Rouet in Southern France, according to an article on Popular Mechanics, Zapanta climbed to the elevated grille, serving as a take-off platform. After strapping himself into the custom boots latched to the Flyboard Aid's body, Zapanta excitedly fired up the turbojets. The shrill shriek of the jets, after squeezing the trigger on the remote, declines into a wall of noise. Nevertheless, the hoverboard was actually quieter than anticipated. It was about as loud as a racing motorcycle according to Zapanta.

Like a god rising above men, Franky Zapanta rose off the platform and then out over the water, over the medical personnel, onlookers, and the witness from Guinness. Zapanta bent his knees and steadily advanced without flailing about and without any scary moments. However, flying the Flyboard Air hoverboard is definitely harder than it appears. Zapanta found out that flyboard riders would actually need a hundred hours of practice on a normal water-propelled Flyboard as well as twenty hours of practice in controlled environment ready for the Flyboard Air.

Franky Zapata, a 37-year old French Jet Ski champion, 37, flew a distance of 2,252 metres aboard the Flyboard Air, which reached as high as fifty meters above sea level confirmed by Guinness World Records as cited in a news report on CBC News. Zapata's company, the Zapata Racing, developed the Flyboard Air.

Franky Zapata said in a statement that he had been dreaming of making such a flight for 5 years. "But nobody believed it was possible - not even me," he said. "It's just one of the best moments of my life," happily remarked.

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