Daredevil Franky Zapata has successfully completed a 35-kilometre journey across the English Channel on a hoverboard - in just 22 minutes. Reaching speeds of up to 177kph on the contraption that has made him a household name in his native France, he set off from Sangatte in France's Pas de Calais region and landed in St Margaret's Bay, beyond the white cliffs of Dover, in southeast England. Zapata stopped only once, on the British side of the Channel, to refuel his invention from a boat in the choppy waters. The first time he gave it a try, he ended up in the sea after a failed attempt to juice up his hoverboard. Three helicopters and a boat escorted the flying inventor across the English Channel. France’s military have expressed an interest in recreating their own version of the flyboard, having paid a 1.3 million grant to Mr Zapata’s company Z-AIR. The inventor flew over a military parade as part of France’s Bastille Day celebrations in Paris last month, an annual holiday celebrating the French Revolution.
