Yes, the jet-powered hoverboard is real, and yes, the creator has crashed it

One of the most talked about things this week was a strange video of a man who appeared to have a real life jet-powered hoverboard. The video was published by Zapata Racing, which has made water-powered versions of these flying machines for a few years now. The difference is that those are always tethered to some kind of personal watercraft. This new "Flyboard Air," as CEO Franky Zapata calls it, is something totally different.

The video went viral on Monday, and it polarized the internet. People thought it was either the coolest thing ever invented, or that it was a massive hoax. Even optimistic parties,like myself, were skeptical. Maybe we all still feel a little burned by Tony Hawk and FunnyorDie, or maybe we were just being careful — after all, the video was suspiciously edited, there were very few details, and it justlooked a little fake.

Over the week, more videos of the flight(s) surfaced, and it appeared to be the real deal. This morning, though, Franky Zapata himself called me up to talk a little bit more about the Flyboard Air, how it works, and what he wants to do with it.

Sean O'Kane: So there’s three parts to this, right? The board, a fuel tank, and a remote?

Franky Zapata:Yes, the thing I have on my back is like a Camelbak but it’s full of kerosene. Jet A1.

What kind of controls are on the remote?

That's just throttle for the four turboengines on the board. Two more are on the sides for stabilization.

When did this project even begin?

We've been working on it for four years. We tried to figure it out that by using the original Flyboard and just pushing air inside the hose. After that, we took two years to create the great turboreactors, and to create the algorithms to stabilize the Flyboard.

 SIX ENGINES, A LOGIC BOARD, AND A BACKPACK FULL OF KEROSENE

When did you make the first flight?

The first working flight? It was just a month ago. And then when we were about to fly again we did a video, and we put that on YouTube. So it’s really new. It’s extremely new.

Can you tell me more about how it works? How many engines are in there?

We have four engines inside, and the power is 250 horsepower each. It’s about 1,000 horsepower total.

How do you keep it stabilized? Is there something helping you other than you just shifting your weight?

It’s a logic system inside the board that helps stabilize the machine. It’s extremely hard to stabilize, so yes it’s not only my balance. For example, we use like the same kind of electronics like you use on a drone to stabilize. The problem is to create the algorithms, the right algorithms, to combine the intelligence in the board and in your brain. So we spent about four months to make that work.

What are those algorithms controlling to help stabilize, is it just thrust level?

No. We adjust the top speed of the small turbines on the side, and also the inclination of the turboreactors itself. So it’s like we have six systems working together plus my brain and my legs.

So it will actually change the angle of those turbines?

Yes, it changes the angle of the turbines, it changes the angle of the thrust nozzle, we adjust also the power for each engine, and also we adjust the thrust of the side turbines, the small ones.