P e o p l e Photograph Grégoire Bernardi Words Tom Banham In April last year, Franky Zapata uploaded a video to YouTube that sent Back to the Future fans into meltdown. In it, he zoomed through the air at almost 50mph, his feet bolted to what looked suspiciously like a hoverboard. It went viral, fuelled in equal parts by the hope that it was real and rage at what had to be a hoax. It was real. With a tank of kerosene on his back and four jet engines beneath his feet, Zapata’s Flyboard Air can stay airborne for 10 minutes and hit a top speed of almost 100mph. The technology was developed from a water-powered version, the Flyboard, which uses the same propulsion as a jet ski to make its user fly. Or, more accurately, hover, since the board is permanently attached to a water hose.
To create the Flyboard Air, Zapata’s team switched from hydropropulsion to jet fuel, which cut its mooring. Then they spent four years building an algorithm that kept it stable. A couple of weeks after the first video went up, Guinness certified another flight as the longest ever recorded: Zapata’s 2,252m bested the previous record for a hoverboard by a factor of 10. “It gives a unique sensation, a feeling of freedom in the air,” says Zapata from his office near Marseille, southern France, where he is prototyping a new version of the board.
“Sometimes I imagine myself as [Iron Man] Tony Stark, gliding through the air.” The superhero reference is fitting – in July, he agreed to sell the company, Zapata Racing, to Implant Sciences, a contractor to the department of homeland security. The deal fell through, but his company is still pursuing the tech’s military potential – a video on the brand’s website imagines troops soaring into firefights on the kind of hoverbikes more commonly found on the Moon of Endor. But Zapata is most excited about its applications off the battlefield. “Mankind’s oldest dream is to fly,” he says. “At Zapata, it is our habit to make dreams come true.” zapata-racing.com
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