From
engadget.comJet-powered hoverboard shatters world recordFranky Zapata's "Flyboard Air" flew over a mile, nearly ten times farther than ever before.
Steve Dent , @stevetdent
05.02.16 in Transportation
Clement Mahoudeau/IP/Getty Images
When footage of a flying hoverboard first emerged last month, many thought it was fake, because the relatively tiny device appears to be breaking the laws of physics. But the "Flyboard Air" from inventor Franky Zapata is real, spectacular and just set a world record for the longest hoverboard flight of all time. It traveled 2,252 meters or 7,388 feet, nearly ten times farther than the mark set last year by Catalin Alexandru Duru on a much larger device. The record has already been certified by Guinness, which attended the event (see the full video, below).
Frenchman Zapata is the man behind the Flyboard, a watersports device that amounts to a firehose attached to boots. However, the Flyboard Air is completely untethered, and has mind-boggling specs -- it can supposedly fly up to 10,000 feet high and hit 93 miles per hour. Zapata makes it look pretty easy to maneuver, though he is a jet ski champ with a lot of experience on the original Flyboard. In fact, he says that it would be insane to try the Flyboard Air without at least 50 hours of experience on the water-powered model.
Maybe not a "way to travel", at least for the sane, but pretty impressive. There was a Canadian who set the previous record last year, but he used loads of buzzy fans. This one uses jet (kerosene/air) power for levitation.
There is, of course, a video in the report.
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