A daredevil French inventor on Thursday failed in his attempt to fly across the English Channel while standing on a jet-powered “flyboard” but vowed to try again.
Franky Zapata, 40, a former jet-skiing champion, had to be fished out of the Channel by rescuers after falling into the busy shipping lane between France and Britain during a tricky re-fuelling manoeuvre.
But Mr. Zapata, who suffered only a scratched elbow, said afterwards that while he was “disappointed” he would be having another go in the future. Mr. Zapata took off successfully from Sangatte in northern France and had planned to land in Britain at St. Margaret’s Bay outside Dover after a flight of just 20 minutes.
But the re-fuelling was always set to be one of the most difficult parts of the operation and Mr. Zapata made contact with the re-fuelling platform due to the waves, forcing him into the sea.
“It’s certain that I will cross again but I don’t know when. I will need to renegotiate with everyone,” he said.
Mr. Zapata had hoped to make the 35 km crossing in 20 minutes, keeping an average speed of 140 km an hour at a height of 15-20 metres above the water.
The flyboard is fuelled by kerosene stored in the rider’s backpack.
Mr. Zapata carried 47 kg of it on Thursday. But as that would only take him part of the way across the Channel, he needed to pick up a new backpack in mid-Channel for the second half of the trip.
“I think it was just a case of a few metres, even a few centimetres,” said the mayor of Sangatte, Guy Allemand, after the mid-Channel mishap was confirmed.
In a scene resembling a science fiction film, Mr. Zapata had zoomed into the sky wearing a full body suit, helmet and clutching a joystick to control the device.
Onlookers gasped in astonishment as he soared high above the sea and rapidly became just a tiny speck on the horizon.
In a tribute to past aviation heroes, Mr. Zapata had picked the day that marks 110 years since pioneer Louis Bleriot made the first airplane flight across the Channel on July 25, 1909.
Mr. Zapata’s flyboard, which is about the size of a skateboard, is powered by five small jet engines.
