# Man on flying board at Bastille Day celebrations **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126 "2019-07-15T13:04:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/1 "2019-07-15T13:04:06Z")
[This video](https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1150408570929917957) of a guy on a flying board at the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris is pretty amazing. It appears that we are now living in a science-fiction world. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/2 "2019-07-15T14:47:39Z")
His name is Franky Zapata. The [French inventor](https://www.autoblog.com/2018/07/26/franky-zapata-flying-hoverboard-video/) of the jet turbine “Flyboard Air” and before that the water-jet powered Flyboard. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/3 "2019-07-15T14:57:15Z")
That does look like it’s right out of “Guardians of the Galaxy”. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/4 "2019-07-16T00:34:25Z")
[2016](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=791930) thread on him; he’s been doing it a while. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/5 "2019-07-16T01:01:18Z")
My electric scooter doesn’t seem so cool anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/6 "2019-07-16T01:22:15Z")
I like how it looks to be some sort of showcase demonstration of technology, and in the foreground, there’s a small glider on the back of a pickup truck, some remote-controlled car-type things, and a 4-wheeled contraption that looks less impressive than the robot from _Short Circuit_ in the '80s. And then the dude swooshes in with his super-advanced technology flying board, and hovers stationary in the air a hundred feet above them like something from futuristic superhero CGI blockbuster movie… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/7 "2019-07-16T01:33:08Z")
You must need incredible balance to ride that thing. How does it handle in windy conditions? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/8 "2019-07-16T01:54:54Z")
I bet it has gyroscopes and a computer maintaining balance like a quadcopter. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/9 "2019-07-16T02:04:15Z")
Trump is gonna be so mad when he sees this! Merci, Emmanuel Macron! Merci beaucoup! ---
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/10 "2019-07-16T12:25:33Z")
Straight out of the futuristic [1950s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiller_VZ-1_Pawnee). Although I’ll admit the modern version is a lot smaller and more refined. Still a truly insane idea for any military to use them, as I’ve seen suggested in various articles. You might as well scream Pull! as you pop up over the battlefield. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/11 "2019-07-16T12:48:57Z")
My first thought when I saw him flying around, holding the rifle - what happens when he shoots? I’m guessing a demonstration of action/reaction… ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/12 "2019-07-21T23:10:20Z")
He is planning a [Cross Channel flight](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/21/flying-soldier-to-attempt-channel-crossing-flyboard-franky-zapata) to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the first powered air crossing by Louis Blériot on 25 Juillet, 1909. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/13 "2019-07-21T23:24:47Z")
Now _that’s_ what I call a hoverboard! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/14 "2019-07-21T23:32:41Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Trump is gonna be so mad when he sees this! > > Merci, Emmanuel Macron! Merci beaucoup! This is what I thought when I saw whose Twitter account it was. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/15 "2019-07-22T00:16:22Z")
> [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](#): > > Now _that’s_ what I call a hoverboard! Right out of _Back to the Future II_, just four years late. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-on-flying-board-at-bastille-day-celebrations/837126/16 "2019-07-22T22:14:26Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > [This video](https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1150408570929917957) of a guy on a flying board at the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris is pretty amazing. > > It appears that we are now living in a science-fiction world. I liked the video that was two below that one, that showed the 3 French police officers climbing into a small dingy in flood waters that ultimately capsizes.