Franky Zapata, the French jet ski champion who invented the Flyboard Air, has set a new Guinness World Record for the farthest hoverboard flight. Zapata achieved the feat Saturday morning off the coast of Sausset-les-Pins in the south of France, riding his Flyboard Air hoverboard for a distance of more than 2,000 meters (6,500 feet). Officials have yet to confirm the final distance but it will far surpass the previous record of 275.9 meters (905 feet, 2 inches), set last year by Canadian inventor Catalin Alexandru Duru.
Zapata, 37, gained wide attention online earlier year after videos of himself riding the Flyboard Air went viral. Some doubted whether the footage was real or merely a marketing gimmick. His company, Zapata Racing, has developed a wide range of water-propelled devices, including the original Flyboard, which connects to a personal watercraft turbine with a long hose. The Flyboard Air, by contrast, uses an "Independent Propulsion Unit" to fly hose-free for up to ten minutes, according to Zapata Racing. The company says the device can reach a maximum height of 10,000 feet, with a maximum speed of 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour).
In an interview with The Verge this month, Zapata said it took four years to develop the Flyboard Air, including algorithms that control the angle of its turbines and adjust its power. The Flyboard Air has four 250-horsepower turboengines, which are fueled by Jet A1 kerosene carried in a tank strapped to its rider's back. (Two other engines are on each side of the board, for stabilization.) Riders use a hand remote to control the engines' throttle.
"MY GOAL IS TO RIDE THE CLOUDS."
Others have developed similar devices, though none are quite as spectacular as the Flyboard Air. Duru, the previous world record holder, created a hoverboard that's powered by propellers, and companies like Lexus andArcaSpace have come out with more traditional hoverboards that fly closer to the ground.
Zapata's system is still very new; Saturday's record-setting ride comes just two months after the Flyboard Air's first successful run, and he told reporters that prior to the flight, he had only spent a total of about two hours flying it. The inventor has acknowledged that it's not the kind of thing people could just pick up and learn, but he says his company has already begun working on a smaller, more consumer-friendly version that riders could fly while seated. Zapata's longer-term goals are even more ambitious.
"You won't believe it. We will fly the clouds," Zapata told The Verge earlier this month. "My goal is to ride the clouds. Do like snowboarding in the powder, but I want to do it in a cloud. That's my dream, and I will do my best to realize that."
