French inventor soars above Champs-Elysees on flyboard at Paris parade

Zapata CEO Franky Zapata flies a jet-powered hoverboard or "Flyboard" prior to the Bastille Day military parade down the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14, 2019. Alain Jocard/AFP

PARIS — A French inventor and entrepreneur on Sunday soared above the Champs-Elysees on a turbine engine-powered flyboard in front of President Emmanuel Macron and other EU leaders.

Former jet-skiing champion Franky Zapata, grasping a rifle in a sign of the possible military uses of his device, took to the air in a futuristic showpiece of the annual Bastille Day parade, an AFP reporter said.

#VIDEO French inventor Franky Zapata is now eyeing a crossing of the English Channel on his turbine engine-powered flyboard ????????????????????????https://t.co/beT8zIxapx pic.twitter.com/lj1VDQJkp3

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 14, 2019

Zapata grasped a rifle in a sign of the possible military uses of his device. Ludovic Marin/AFP

#UPDATE Former jet-skiing champion Franky Zapata, grasping a rifle in a sign of the possible military uses of his device, took to the air in a futuristic showpiece of the annual Bastille Day paradehttps://t.co/jX3ExXYyLP pic.twitter.com/PGaH8oZdms

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 14, 2019

Franky Zapata first developed his device flying above water and says the flyboard has the power to take off and reach speeds up to 190 kilometres an hour (118 mph) and run for 10 minuteshttps://t.co/beT8zIxapx pic.twitter.com/B29wFLvVgW

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 14, 2019

Hoverboard show during a rehearsal for #BastilleDay.
The ????????MoD has given to the inventor Franky Zapata, a €1.3 million grant to develop an aeronautical micro-jet engine that can be used by the French military (SOF, reco, medevac, urban warfare...). pic.twitter.com/GUCx5Ssabv

— Tom Antonov (@Tom_Antonov) July 13, 2019

French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly told France Inter radio ahead of the parade that the flyboard "can allow tests for different kinds of uses, for example as a flying logistical platform or, indeed, as an assault platform."

Zapata, who first developed his device flying above water, says that the flyboard has the power to take off and reach speeds up to 190 kilometers an hour (118 mph) and run for 10 minutes.

Great session, great sensations ???? funny filming time with Bonne Pioche Prod., can't wait to see the result ! ???? pic.twitter.com/IFiSoV6Vv6

— Franky Zapata (@frankyzapata) May 9, 2019

He is now eyeing a crossing of the English Channel which, for the first time, will require a refueling in mid-flight.

Zapata aims to make the crossing on July 25, 110 years to the day after pioneering aviator Louis Bleriot made the first airplane flight across the Channel. — Agence France-Presse