French Inventor Totes Rifle While Flying Turbine-Powered Flyboard at Bastille Day Celebrations - fly board air.JPG

https://gizmodo.com/french-inventor-...ere-1836363914

European leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron were treated to a
demonstration of the Flyboard Air, a sort of gas turbine-powered
jetpack/hoverboard/flying platform originally invented by jetski champ Franky
Zapata, during Bastille Day festivities in Paris on Sunday.

Zapata carried what certainly appeared to be an unloaded rifle (or a replica of
such) as he flew over French military forces parading down the Avenue des
Champs-Élysées with the flags of the European Intervention Initiative, a
strategic coordination pact between 10 countries. In a clip posted by France2,
Macron somehow manages to appear completely nonchalant about this whole thing:

According to France24, Zapata appears to have carried the rifle in part due to
interest in the Flyboard’s potential military applications. French Armed Forces
Minister Florence Parly told France Inter radio that the device “can allow tests
for different kinds of uses, for example as a flying logistical platform or,
indeed, as an assault platform,” according to the news network. Zapata also said
in 2017 that he was working with the U.S. military on the device for combat
applications.

There are longstanding and well-known engineering issues that have prevented
conventional jetpacks from becoming more than sideshow novelties that also
happen to be extremely expensive to operate, with rare exceptions. Those include
the large amount of energy necessary to sustain flight, the difficulty of
controlling the craft, and the obvious safety issues inherent in strapping a
powerful jet engine to someone’s back.

A September 2018 look at Zapata’s work with the U.S. military in the Drive noted
his variant, which is a flying platform, had solved some of those issues by
introducing seven computer-controlled jet turbines that send flight data to a
tablet-sized display as well as “built-in redundancies and automatic
compensation if one of the jet engines fails.” Zapata advertises a custom-tooled
version called the Fly-EZ as ideal for military purposes ranging from naval
personnel transfers and routine ground patrols to actual combat insertions and
“denied area penetration.” According to the Drive, the craft can carry up to 280
pounds, fly at 80 miles per hour for up to 12 minutes, and attain altitudes of
9,000 feet, though not necessarily at the maximum load. (France24 cited
different specifications for the one used in the demonstration at a maximum
speed of 118 miles per hour for 10 minutes )

However, the Drive noted that it would still be extremely expensive to equip
troops with the system (with a prospective price of $250,000 apiece) and doesn’t
solve other issues that came up in prior military inquiries into jetpacks. Those
include noise that would disrupt stealth operations, leaving the operator
entirely exposed to enemy fire with limited-at-best options for retaliation, and
the fact that helicopters can already transport troops and materiel en masse at
much longer ranges and durations. That doesn’t rule out their use in all
scenarios—examples could include kitting out military bases for rapid-response
teams or use in disaster relief operations—but it does remain to be seen whether
the Flyboard will ever be broadly adopted by armed forces.




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