GUY ON FRENCH FLYBOARD WANTS TO FLY ACROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
You saw the video a couple weeks ago of the French soldier on the flying hoverboard during the country’s Bastille Day parade? That guy now wants to attempt to cross the English Channel this week on his jet-powered hoverboard. Franky Zapata wants to make the journey to mark the 110th anniversary of Louis Bleriot’s first cross-channel airplane flight. Zapata’s flyboard is powered by five mini turbo engines and can reach speeds of up to 118 miles per hour. He says it won’t be easy and he figures he has a 30 percent chance of succeeding. Zapata has said he expects to cross the channel, which at its narrowest is 20 miles wide, in about 20 minutes. He will refuel once midway instead of twice as he had planned, because maritime officials believe stationing two ships to refuel the flyboard would pose a risk in the busy shipping corridor. So, they’re going to limit it to just one refueling ship. “This has made the challenge 10 times more difficult,” Zapata said.
* So two ships would make it only five times more difficult? They told me there would be no math this morning.
* A 30% chance of succeeding. Way to bring the hype.
* As long as he isn’t seized by Iranians riding drones.
* Imagine if the Nazis saw an army of these guys crossing the channel on D-Day.
* Those Magnificent Men In Their Flyboard Machines. (Change the airplanes to flyboards, and that’s the plot of the movie.)
CLIP: Song – “Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines”
