Extreme sports YouTuber Devin Super Tramp has released a new video featuring French inventor Franky Zapata demonstrating his jet-powered Flyboard Air hoverboard traveling at high speeds across the deserts of Utah and Las Vegas. It also shows him keeping pace with a green Lamborghini Huracan and manages to show off a few of Zapata’s hydro-powered vehicles.
Zapata is the world champion jet ski racer (who knew?) behind the French company of the same name that develops and manufactures hydro- and jet-powered equipment. He set a world record in 2016 for longest hoverboard flight, at 2,252 meters or 7,388 feet. The new video claims Zapata hit a top speed of 103.4 miles per hour, which would easily eclipse the previous demonstrated top speed of 87 mph.
Zapata launched the Flyboard, a “water-propelled hydro-flyer board,” in 2012, and in 2016 he unveiled the turbine engine-powered Flyboard Air, which the company says “uses proprietary algorithms and balance methodology to direct jet engines to act independently and harmoniously.”
The Flyboard Air runs on 250-horsepower jet engines powered by Jet B kerosene stored in a backpack. It boasts a demonstrated maximum altitude of 150 meters (492 feet) and flight time of 6 minutes.
It’s controlled by a hand-held remote and is designed around the human body and the sense of balance. The company touts the device’s built-in redundancies, with the ability to fly even when one of the two engines goes out, a controlled descent when both die and two wired flight-control systems backed by a wireless backup system. It says the device has applications for military, industrial, first-responder and plain-old entertainment uses.
The company says it has a U.S.-certified ultralight aircraft version that is electronically limited to 54 knots and has a 5-gallon fuel capacity. At present, Franky Zapata is the only human who can pilot the Flyboard Air. It recommends that those who want to experience jet-powered hoverboard flight first receive training for the EZ-Fly.