Flyboard creator Franky Zapata fails in attempt to cross the English Channel

French inventor Franky Zapata failed in anattempt to cross the English Channel on his jet-powered flyboard on Thursday.

Zapata missed a landing platform mounted on a boat as he tried to land midway across the Channel to refuel. He was unhurt in the fall.

Zapata became known as the ‘flying soldier’ when he showed off his invention before the world’s media at France’s Bastille Day military parade on July 14.

He set off from Sangatte on the north French coast on Thursday to fly to St Margaret’s Bay near Dover.

The flight was expected to take just 20 minutes.

Following his fall, a member of his said: “It is a huge disappointment. He made his rendezvous with the refuelling boat but he must have missed the platform by just a few centimetres.

The feat was set to coincide with the 110th anniversary of the first-ever flight across the English Channel in an aeroplane, achieved by Louis Bleriot.

Via Euronews/ Sky News

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