Zapata Flyboard

Ah, those magnificent men in their flying machines. They go up, diddly-up-up. They go down, diddly-own-down. French sky-surfer and Green Goblin lookalike Franky Zapata went down diddly-own-down in frightening fashion at an airshow on the weekend.

After ending up in the water on his first attempt, flying Frenchman Franky Zapata has now successfully crossed the English Channel on his jet-powered Flyboard Air. The 22-mile (35.4-km) crossing took Zapata some 22 minutes, holding speeds over 100 mph (160 km/h).

After wowing the crowds by flying over the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris earlier this month, Franky Zapata attempted to cross the English Channel today on his Flyboard Air jet-powered hoverboard. Sadly he didn't make it and dropped in the drink about half way across.​

The Zapata Ezfly​ looks for all intents and purposes like a Segway of the sky. You stand on a small platform equipped with a series of jet thrusters, holding two handgrips that come up from the base, then rise up into the air and zoom around, steering with your bodyweight.

Dubai's firefighters have flirted with the idea of firefighting jetpacks before - but now, with Project Dolphin, they're looking at a fleet of jet ski-based quick response units that can fight seaside fires from on top of a 30-foot high waterjet-propelled hoverboard.

In April, Franky Zapata showed off the Flyboard Air; an impressive personal flight system that quickly started breaking records. Now, US company Implant Sciences has announcing its intention to purchase Zapata Industries.

​On April 30, we joined Zapata Racing in the south of France to witness an attempt to snatch the "farthest flight by hoverboard" record from Alexandru Duru. That earlier record was pulverized. We managed to grab a few words with a jubilant but exhausted Zapata after his record-breaking flight.​

Franky Zapata has secured a new Guinness World Record for the longest flight by hoverboard. Standing atop his Flyboard Air, he traveled an awe-inspiring 2,252.4 meters before making a safe landing at the port of Sausset-les-Pins today.

This French inventor's new turbine-powered flying platform goes as high as 10,000 feet and flies for up to 10 minutes at a top speed around 150 km/h. Forget your electromagnetic rubbish, this is what we call a real hoverboard.

Three years after introducing the Flyboard, Frank Zapata has put a new spin on the idea, revealing the Hoverboard by ZR. This new extreme-sport lives up to its futuristic namesake and offers riders an experience that sits somewhere between surfing and flyboarding.

Yet another recreational marketplace has sprung from nowhere in just three years. The "firehose" ride can now be had from any PWC with a low-cost attachment.

This ingenious device turns a jet ski into a pair of high-powered jet boots that let you fly through the air or plunge through the waves like a human dolphin. Leisure product of the year!