Kicker: Crossing the English Channel

NICK EICHER, HOST: A 40-year-old inventor made history this week—by crossing the English Channel. It’s been done before, but not this way.

AUDIO: That’s 40 year old Franky Zapata with his hoverboard…

Zapata flew 22 miles across the Channel on his personal hoverboard at a top speed of about 110 miles per hour. 

I did the math on this and the trip should’ve been a zippy 12 minutes. But here’s what you need to understand about the personal hoverboard: it can carry only so much fuel. 

He had to make a stop along the way for more, so the whole trip took 22 minutes. 

Still, that is a good bit faster than taking the chunnel, not to mention faster than the old lumbering hovercraft that the chunnel put out of business. 

Zapata already has designs on putting his invention out of business. He’s working on a flying car!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/AP) French inventor Franky Zapata flies near St. Margaret’s beach, Dover after crossing the Channel on a flying board Sunday, August 4, 2019.

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