Since August 4, 2019, we can consider the saying about Polish pilots in a completely different context; it was said many years ago that if they had to fly and had nothing to fly on, they would fly on a barn door. Perhaps that door is still too bulky a flying machine, but when the dream of French designer and visionary Franky Zapata came true this summer, crossing 35 km from France to Great Britain over the English Channel on a self-flying “board” called a flyboard, we entered a completely new dimension of communication and transport. Logisticians and engineers are already seeing further possibilities for the free movement of people with – for now – small luggage. And not only in areas that are difficult to access or affected by military operations. After all, a flyboard pilot-user could, for example, “pull” a whole caravan of drones with larger loads behind them, supervising their precise landing at the destination and safe return.
Although F. Zapata said – after a successful landing on English soil – that he is already thinking about a flying car; the road to having at least some wheeled vehicles in congested cities overcome the most traffic-jammed areas and routes by air seems long. Besides, flyboarders or “flying car” drivers flying in greater numbers around agglomerations would also have designated routes and landing spots (on the road, sidewalk, adapted roof, or water platform), not to mention their compliance with a completely new traffic law. But what kind of traffic? Road-air traffic, perhaps? In any case, the first flying-driving vehicles are already here, so traffic law codifiers: keep this in mind, even if the matter does not look serious at first…
Each of us can now see with the eyes of our imagination (not virtual at all) further possibilities for the application of the brilliant Frenchman’s invention, but – as life teaches – in many cases, this will also apply to areas that conflict with the law. Does it take much time, for example, to start production of flyboards in Mexico and sell them to those interested in a one-way trip to the USA? Americans (like the Chinese in Asia hundreds of years ago) are building a wall on the border of their country with their southern neighbor at the cost of huge financial outlays. And what will they do when one day hundreds, or perhaps even thousands of Mexicans simply fly at a speed of over 100 km/h over the comprehensively monitored barbed wire and high concrete structures, landing many kilometers away in Texas, Arizona, or California? The so-called getaways of burglars from crime scenes can also initially take place instantly on a flyboard, which is the opposite of the theory of the unforgettable Egon Olsen, who used to say that one should leave the scene of a crime at a calm pace, not arousing any suspicion.
Time will tell how it will be. In logistics and distribution, the flyboard will certainly not pass without an echo, finding a number of interesting applications. Younger generations will use it in many ways. And the older ones? In the end, they will certainly be able to quote to the young the film character Stanisław Anioł (the house manager at Alternatywy 4 street in Warsaw), who said to another character of this series, Prof. Ryszard Dąb-Rozwadowski, among other things: “Professor, we did things like that in Pułtusk”…