
Franky Zapata: Flyboarding Frenchman crosses English Channel - bauc
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49225001
======
twic
So we've got Franky Zapata, and we've got Richard Browning building something
comparable in the UK, and David Mayman in Australia. Is there anyone else?

Why is this all happening now? They can't all have made revolutionary
breakthroughs of their own simultaneously. Is there some underlying technology
that has quietly improved to the point where personal aerial dickery has
become feasible?

~~~
rwmj
I assume these boards must be self stabilising, so the breakthrough would be
the kind of miniaturised gyroscopes, accelerometers and associated processing
power found in smartphones.

~~~
jackvalentine
I'm not sure that's 100% true, I saw an interview with the french guy who said
it took tens of hours to learn how to balance before he could fly it.

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Zenst
Mentioned in the article how the French military has shown a fiscal backed
interest for using this as an observation or assault platform.

Whilst platform is viable with gyro's or computer aided flying if you wish.
How much kickback can it handle - could you actually fire a gun from this? But
certainly does negate many of the aspect people have against armed drones as
this is in effect a human drone.

But it is pretty neat, as many recall the facination with jetpacks and the
dreams that we would all have them in the 60's/70's (along with flying cars),
so this kinda ticks many box's of past dreams.

As for distance/flight time - kerosene is pretty dense energy wise, and I
can't think of anything else that would be as flexible and offer greater
energy density. But still, if you compare this to jetpacks - very impressive.

For me one use case for something like this may well be firefighting or
certainly a way to escape a tall building that is on fire from your flat
balcony.

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xt00
Yea an assault helicopter transports troops to many locations and brings with
it enough fire power to suppress anybody on the ground, however, it’s somewhat
common that helicopters get hit by rpg’s and similar things by ground forces
as they are landing or about to land so it does happen that helicopters crash
land when deployed into the middle of a firefight and everybody climbs out
rapidly and now are stranded. These personal airborne mobile weapons platforms
(I’m sure there is an acronym there somewhere), would be much more effective
if there was a swarm of say 20 of them. You couldn’t just shoot an rpg at all
of them and they would have the high ground basically always and could just
rain fire down on you from basically all angles.. sniper nest? Better be an
igloo.. top of a building? Not enough cover..

Another place they could be used is to escape following a covert raid.. you
would carry or stash the platforms someplace near the operation before hand
then jump on them and all take off, you would only hear them escaping.

~~~
mr_overalls
> You couldn’t just shoot an rpg at all of them

Yes, a single explosive projectile wouldn't be too effective, but consider an
RPG round loaded with cluster bombs, shrapnel, or flechettes. Or the good ol'
pray-n-spray with small-arms fire. You don't need much kinetic energy to kill
a human on a hoverboard (or at least knock him off).

Helicopters put all of your eggs in one basket, but least it's a somewhat
armored basket.

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lifeisstillgood
I can see this as the "penthouse to penthouse" service of choice - and I for
one would love to tour manhattan on one.

Likelihood of licensing some moron with a tank full of jet fuel to buzz above
thousands of pedestrians- about zero % :-(

~~~
amelius
> Likelihood of licensing some moron with a tank full of jet fuel to buzz
> above thousands of pedestrians- about zero %

Well, in the US there are plenty of morons with licensed fire arms, so why
would jetpacks be an obstacle?

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jklinger410
>with licensed fire arms

Even more with unlicensed fire arms.

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vadym909
I think most of the comments here are incredibly short sighted. I see this as
a huge development. Nobody cares about fuel consumption when inventing a new
mode of transportation that says goodbye to roads, airports, boats. This is
just insane and could change the world.

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schoen
This is a really cool invention, and I think it would be a lot of fun to use.
But it's not the first personal flying device, and fuel considerations have
been an obstacle to many of those.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_pack)

"their uses are much more limited than their fictional counterparts because of
the challenges of Earth's atmosphere, gravity, low energy density of available
fuels, and the human body not being suited to fly, and they are principally
used for stunts"

The "low energy density of available fuels" is a concern for this device too:
note that the prototype required refueling in order to cross the English
Channel. Having to carry your own fuel is a big limitation for flying
machines.

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bestouff
I wonder how much money he would have got if he was in the US ?

Edit: if he was american and built it in the US

~~~
rjsw
Where would an American demonstrate their machine ?

The ~20 mile distance provided by the Channel is just about right for stunts
like this.

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tyingq
I imagine you could find lots of 20 mile shore to shore routes in the great
lakes. And an easy way to scale up once that's not long enough.

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ed_blackburn
I'm game for a laugh and achievement. But such ventures if proposed as
commercially viable are surely a non-starter owing to environmental impact?

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amelius
I suspect not a very eco-friendly solution.

Also, wouldn't this be way more efficient if he just added some small delta
wings?

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KaiserPro
It would be difficult, for them to work they must have the correct angle of
attack.

The way the device is controlled is by constantly changing the angle of the
jets, so the wings need to be angled precisely otherwise it'll counteract the
control input.

I suspect body position would make a much bigger impact.
[https://www.businessinsider.com/why-ski-jumpers-fly-in-a-
v-s...](https://www.businessinsider.com/why-ski-jumpers-fly-in-a-v-
shape-2014-1?r=US&IR=T) Obviously there are no skis.

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PunksATawnyFill
And no video of it. Brilliant.

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mitchtbaum
You gotta give it to those cops playing with the protesters in the second
video... Judging by the difference in weapons, those young guys got away with
more than a fun experience to look back, retell, relive... Reminds me of NYC
occupy protesters busting into McDonalds' buildings to take milk.

Play safe, everyone.

~·¤·~

Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

[https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sVt1Dy_LblQ&feature=share](https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=sVt1Dy_LblQ&feature=share)

