And he has finally done it! We are talking about Franky Zapata, who is a French Inventor and goes by the name of ‘flyman’ as well. As you all know, Flyman recently attempted to cross the English Channel, but the attempt ended in failure when he was unable to land on the boat that was stationed halfway for the sake of fueling his flyboard.
The strong-willed French inventor then promised that he would not back down from his goal and will attempt another crossing of the English Channel. And he has successfully done so, thus becoming the very first person to have crossed the English Channel using a flyboard. According to the reports so far, our French inventor started his journey from Sangatte that is located close to Calais and ended the journey by landing in St. Margaret’s Bay in Dover on the morning of August 4.
Franky Zapata successfully flew a distance of 35 kilometers in twenty minutes. It has been further reported that the French inventor was able to maintain an average speed of 87 mph while flying at the height of about 15-20 meters from the sea. Zapata attempted to cross the English Channel on July 25 originally but ended up falling into the water while he was trying to refuel his flyboard.
For those of you who do not know; the flyboard is a home-made invention by Zapata. Franky Zapata is not only a French inventor but also a former jet-ski champion. He has been working on his flyboard for years. The contraption can achieve a top speed of about 118 mph. The inventor said this before breaking down into tears, ‘We made the machine three years ago… and now we’ve crossed the Channel, it’s crazy.’ He then added, ‘Whether this is a historic event or not, I’m not the one to decide that, time will tell.’ He further added that the biggest challenge he had to face was the refueling attempt by changing backpack mid-journey.
