With his inventions of the Flyboard and the JetRacer who circumnavigated the planet, Franky Zapata That we can see aviation during the July 14, 2019 parade in Paris answers us for his vision of air traffic.
What is the future of air traffic?
Franky Zapata: The future is the new mobility on the fly! Cities are crowded, today to get around we use roads but imagine for a moment being able to replace roads with crops that would eventually serve as gardens and parks to produce oil that would later be used in biofuels. I don’t really believe in intercity transportation, because new means like electric scooters work. Surfing downtown in flying machines is as much a fad as chauffeuring in a 4×4. I prefer city-to-city transportation.
The flying car you’re working on is a hybrid Electric but also thermal, isn’t that paradoxical?
Franky Zapata: We are a little against the current of competition, which is investing millions in electricity. If it does not pollute when used, there is still difficulty in building batteries. There are many doubts about flying machines because they consume a lot of energy. It’s already a big deal to spend 1,000 times more than a car. But you have to see it differently, you have to see it step by step. Today we are making a flying car with a thermal engine that will consume biofuel and which will be used primarily for leisure: people want to fly, we will try to give them a taste of the future. Then our innovations can be used very quickly to the rescue. Any passion and any innovation is good for the future. What will be the future of men in 10 years, 20 years, 100 years, who knows? Take Louis Blériot’s plane, for example, it wasn’t very useful, but it crossed the English Channel 110 years ago. We were already crossing the canal by boat, and there was no interest at that time.
You have announced that you will continue the technological adventure in the United States to open …
Franky Zapata: The first market we target is entertainment : You can go for a ride in a flying car in the same way as renting a waterslide. This is only possible in the US at the moment due to regulations. In France, management favors funds with about six categories for Olm. With a new machine that doesn’t match any, and you already know you have five years of waiting and money to invest that I don’t have because it’s my own company, and it’s not a startup making millions that I might want to sell one day: it’s my life. During these five years, technology will evolve and I prefer to find an entertainment market to make my innovation research profitable.
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