On Sunday morning, inventor Franky Zapata made his second attempt to cross the English Channel via a hoverboard design of his own creation. A previous attempt had failed after a refueling attempt went awry. This time, Zapata pulled it off, taking 22 minutes to cover the distance of approximately 20 miles.
This feat makes Zapata the first person to cross the English Channel on a hoverboard.
Zapata had previously entered the spotlight for his appearance, also on hoverboard, at Paris’s Bastille Day celebrations. He has also not shied away from possible military applications of the hoverboard. As The New York Times reports, “[l]ast year, the French Defense Ministry pledged nearly $1.5 million to his company, Zapata Industries, to develop the device, which was featured at a military-sponsored convention.”
After the first unsuccessful Channel crossing, Zapata and his team worked long hours — ”15 to 16 hours per day for eight days,” according to a BFM TV report — to get the hoverboard back in working condition.
Zapata Industries describes the Jetboard Air, the hoverboard used to cross the English Channel, as a “jet powered personal aerial vehicle, capable of VTOL and unprecedented individual mobility.” A 2018 interview with Red Bull explored Zapata’s background: Zapata Industries began in 1998 with a focus on parts for high-powered jet skis, and shifted direction in 2012.
For now, Zapata can bask in the satisfaction of knowing that he’s pulled off a feat that inventors and technologists know well: the sense of breaking a boundary that wasn’t there before, and looking ahead to the next challenge.
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