Can this ‘Air Scooter' cross the English Channel safely?
A French aviation start-up wants to make that a reality with an aircraft resembling a gigantic scooter.
'Air Scooter' is an ultralight aircraft pre-programmed to fly a route. Thanks to the computers doing a lot of the heavy lifting, the pilot's input is much less important than in a traditional helicopter.
"It's a kind of flying robot,' Franky Zapata, the CEO of Zapata, said.
'When you are inside, you just ask the machine to go somewhere. You feel like the pilot. But the machine only executes what the computer wants, so it's extremely easy," Zapata added.
Zapata says the hybrid vertical take-off aircraft is easier to fly and cheaper to learn, compared to traditional aircraft.
The company says it hopes to democratise air travel.
"You need to be skilled to pilot an aeroplane. You need to be skilled to pilot a helicopter. And it's very expensive to become a pilot. The machines are expensive," Zapata said.
Fly over the English Channel
The French pilot and inventor will attempt to cross the English Channel between France and England in a stunt designed to serve as a proof of concept for his Air Scooter on Friday.
He will take off from Calais, France, and will cross the Channel and plans to arrive at St Margaret's Bay, close to Dover, in the UK.
He has told the media that there's no parachute to use during this trip in case he has to bail out in an emergency.
Zapata has already made a crossing, in 2019, on another of his machines, called the Flyboard Air.
The flying hoverboard successfully surfed the sky on the second attempt, a week after his first bid failed halfway through.
He completed a 36-kilometre journey in 22 minutes, reaching a top speed of 202 kilometres per hour during the crossing.
Zapata admits the flying hoverboard required lots of skill to operate, and the Air Scooter is a much easier vertical takeoff hybrid aircraft.
'What is very different compared to the Flyboard Air is the fact that this machine is able to be piloted by everybody. It's not something so technical or so hard, so dangerous as the Flyboard".
For more on this story, watch the video in the media player above.
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