Flyboard In Flight
How far above the ground does someone have to be before they're just flying and not hovering?. Screenshot by author, from YouTube
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We are in a golden age of hoverboards. Sure, there are those motorized scooters with a tendency to catch fire, but there are other, better hoverboards too. Last year, Alexandru Duru set a record by flying an actual airborne board 905 feet over a lake. Last week, Franky Zapata of Zapata Racing more than octupled that record, flying 7,388 feet over the sea in the south of France, using only a machine strapped to his feet.

This puts us in one of the best possible futures: an aviation race, between hoverboard pilots and designers. We’ve been impressed with Duru’s hoverboard since it first flew, and was one of ten 2016 Innovation Awards. Technology rarely sleeps, and Zapata’s board is an impressive creation itself. Below, Duru’s record-setting flight:

And here is Zapata’s hoverboard flying, from before he broke the record.

Read more about Zapata’s world-beating flight at Guinness World Records.