“For a long time, I spent my weekends in the emergency room”

We could already see each other at the top of the wasteland. The one right behind the house. There were plans to set up a nice, well-marked landing area there. The podium type with guardrail, so that it can land in peace. The heads of the neighbors… “But what the heck is it?” Tudieu, a flying man! Children, come quickly! “

Yes, that’s how we dreamed of seeing Franky Zapata land in our lives and, to begin with, in our garden: at the controls of his Flyboard Air (a kind of jet-powered cloud skateboard). Like a remake of July 14, 2019, when he flew over the Champs-Elysées before landing at Place de la Concorde under the dumbfounded eyes of the Head of State and his guests. Which we can be naive at times.

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The Covid-19 pandemic and its farandole of barrier gestures have decided otherwise. As well as the schedule of our guest of the week. So, finally, it was on the screen of the family computer that he appeared live from Rove, his HQ in Bouches-du-Rhône. Between teleportation and “Skypero”. Funny cocktail for a meeting.

He showed up a little late. “Don’t get impatient, reassured his assistant. He fixes something in the workshop with his team on his flying car. “ On her what? Car. Flying. We had been told about a zealot of Icarus and here comes an epigone of Back to the future. Franky Zapata is not always where you expect it to be.

Ode to continuing education

” Hello ! Sorry. You are fine ? “ Supersonic flow. Accent of the creeks. Extra-large smile. Sharp look (but full of sweetness). We do not give him his 42 years. Dark hair. Black tee-shirt. A sooty figure on a red background where the hero’s name is ten times the size of anyone. No, we didn’t wait too long. On the other hand, we are very impatient: what is this flying car story? “Ah, ah This is my next project: the Jet Racer. We have already done tests in stand-alone mode. We should have made a presentation at the end of 2020 and then, with the pandemic There, we were solving telemetry problems. The first public flight will take place as soon as the health situation allows! “

It would be a wingless chassis, powered by ten micro-turbojets combining thermal and electric. The machine would be autonomous, calculating itself its direction, the altitude (3000 meters maximum) and its speed (300 km / h announced), according to the analysis of all the necessary parameters. Hence the telemetry. A masterpiece of post-nuclear engineering. Except that Franky Zapata is not an engineer. He is ingenious. “I left school at 15. “ He learned everything on his own or through contact with elite technicians. Ode to continuing education. Even today, he tirelessly potash, ceaselessly documents himself, searches the Internet in search of the study which will enable him to go further, that is to say higher.

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