【1994 Archives】

What994 Archivesmore noble than man's mastery of the sky? The quest to conquer not just land and sea, but also air? The casting off of the shackles of earthbound existence?

Oh, we're talking about a failed "flyboard" mission that ended minutes after takeoff with a plop into the English Channel? Never mind.

On Thursday, the French inventor Franky Zapata attempted to cross from France to the U.K. over the English Channel on a device of his creation, the "Flyboard Air."

Alas, he missed the platform on which he was supposed to land and refuel, and fell into the sea. Oh well.

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The Flyboard Air is a machine that propels the rider up into the sky, traveling hoverboard style. The main device looks vaguely like a flying skateboard with legs, and is fueled from a connected backpack the rider wears. It's powered by turbine engines, and can go over 85 mph. Pretty nifty! Zapata's board earned attention when he flew over a Bastille Day parade, carrying what looked like a rifle.

Zapata took off near Calais in France before a crowd of onlookers, and was supposed to land in Dover, England. A humble mission, he was to make the flight on the same day that Louis Blériot completed the first powered airplane flight across the Channel in 1909.

Sadly, Zapata was not to join the annals of history. Apparently French authorities insisted that he land half way through the journey to re-fuel, 11 miles in, on a small platform. Zapata's team attributed to the fall to rough waves, and they were "furious," according to the Guardian, that the French wouldn't let Zapata just refuel in mid-air like a sane person.

There's a video of the take-off, in which you can watch Zapata take off from the beach, and disappear into the sky. To everyone's dismay, the fall was not captured on film. Next time!

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