{"id":140806,"date":"2019-08-04T13:46:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T12:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=140806"},"modified":"2019-08-04T13:46:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-04T12:46:39","slug":"franky-zapata-french-hoverboard-inventor-successfully-crosses-the-channel-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=140806","title":{"rendered":"Franky Zapata: French hoverboard inventor successfully crosses the Channel for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"
A French inventor has successfully crossed the Channel on his jet-powered hoverboard for the first time.<\/p>\n

Franky Zapata took off from Sangatte in northern France at 7.15am BST on Sunday, and landed at St Margaret’s Bay in Dover around 25 minutes later.<\/p>\n

It was the second attempt at the 21-mile crossing for the inventor, who failed his first effort back in July after encountering problems at a refuelling station.<\/p>\n

But after making some necessary changes to his refuelling arrangements, the 40-year-old former jet ski champion was able to make his second attempt a success.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on arrival in England, Mr Zapata said he “really enjoyed” the last five to six kilometres of his journey.<\/p>\n

He added: “Whether this is a historic event or not, I’m not the one to decide that, time will tell.<\/p>\n

“We made a machine three years ago…and now we’ve crossed the Channel, it’s crazy.”<\/p>\n

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\"Franky<\/p>\n<\/div>

Franky Zapata approaches the White Cliffs of Dover as he prepares to land at his destination<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Mr Zapata’s wife Krysten told Sky News that she was “very happy” at the result, but noted that her husband was also “very tired” after working long hours to achieve his goal.<\/p>\n

She added: “Everything is perfect…This is his day.”<\/p>\n

During the journey, Mr Zapata was carrying enough kerosene in his backpack to fuel the hoverboard for about 10 minutes in the air, but needed to strap on a new supply for the second leg of his journey.<\/p>\n

He steered his Flyboard aircraft, which flies at up to 87mph, by leaning forwards or backwards, and controlled thrust with a throttle connected to his 1,500 horsepower board.<\/p>\n

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\n\"French<\/span><\/span>
French flyboard inventor Franky Zapata says he will try to cross English Channel again after the failure of his first attempt.<\/span>
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The invention won global acclaim when Mr Zapata flew over France’s Bastille Day celebrations in Paris on 14 July, with French President Emmanuel Macron later tweeting a video of his exploits.<\/p>\n

Mr Zapata was given a grant of more than \u00a31m from the French government to develop the technology behind his hoverboard.<\/p>\n

His failed attempt was on the 110th anniversary of Louis Bleriot’s 1909 Channel crossing – the first time anyone had crossed the Channel in a “heavier-than-air” aircraft.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A French inventor has successfully crossed the Channel on his jet-powered hoverboard for the first time. Franky Zapata took off from Sangatte in northern France at 7.15am BST on Sunday, and landed at St Margaret’s Bay in Dover around 25 minutes later. It was the second attempt at the 21-mile crossing for the inventor, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":140807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[12907,1325],"class_list":["post-140806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more","tag-frankie-zapata","tag-french"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=140806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/140807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=140806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=140806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=140806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}