The Flying Soldier technology is cool, but not practical for most battlefield scenario’s

French Celebrated their Bastilia day with the traditional military parade and a…Flying soldier hovers above. This has been the subject of many science fiction films but now seems like somebody wanted to turn to reality.

It’s a flying skateboard (yes, almost like Marty Mcfly in Back to the Future) called “Flyboard”. It’s operated by 6 jet turbine engines, 4 on the back and 2 on the sides for balance. Its flying altitude is 2700 meters, payload of 127 KG, speed is 150 km an hour and can fly for 10 minutes. The Turbine engines are controlled by a computer and algorithm which help maintain in flight balance and if one of the turbines is lost. The gas pack is on his back and each unit costs 250,000$. France’s defense minister, Florence Parly, said “the invention can be used for logistical, offensive and other needs”.

The inventor, Franky Zapata, nicked “human Torpedo”, Franky Zapata was born in 1978 and from a young age was heavily into water sports. He was twice Ski Water world champion and seven times European Champion. But his real passion was hovering OVER the water, not on it and through the years he worked on his invention and since 2010 had devoted himself entirely to it. In 2011 he showcased his Fly board which was operated with water jet engines although what he really wanted the real thing – an Air Operated Hoverboard which will “cast a shadow on Marty Mcfly’s Hoverboard” (in his own words)

IN 2016 he finally did it, finishing the development of the air operated Hoverboard and in 2017 flying it for the first time in front of hundreds of astonished eyes. French authorities were less impressed and warned not to do it again. And neither was he “impressed” by their warning and did just that, flying it over a beach town in southern France flying at 50 M’ height and more than 2 KM. The DA in the region opened an investigation for “violating aerial regulations”. In a response there were mass online protests and thousands of signatures were collected asking French authorities to “leave him and his Technology alone”. Eventually, and before authorities could charge him, he sold his technology to a US DOD affiliated company. The US army was more tolerant toward his pioneering technology, than French authorities.

Can armies really use flying soldiers?

The big question is can it be used for military uses? It has plenty of civilian uses, like recusing people from burning buildings. But military? This technology has actually been around for 60 years, in various forms, and is not new. However it was never really developed seriously. The US army played around with this technology it in the 60’s but they came to the same conclusions – it is too expensive and dangerous, and despite being fascinatingly science fiction, it simply didn’t have enough practical battlefield uses and in any case and technology was not mature enough.

Too complicated and dangerous

The technology can be good for extremely highly Specialized Commando Raids, AT NIGHT, but NOT for regular army infantry activity. A regular platoon flying into combat during day time is completely exposed and it will be a “Turkey Shoot” and will be burnt alive when bullets hit their gas engines. if one of the bullets hits the gas powered engine it will explode burn the soldier alive. Not a pleasant way to die.  If a bullet hits the body in regular combat it’s bad enough, but not like being burned alive. Off course there is ALWAYS the risk of being burned alive in combat, but here it’s a burning death trap. Also at night there are the same risks, as the engine is too laud and will be easily detected, if not the naked eye or radars and shot down. But even if they make the engine quitter, detected by radars they can still be detected by radars and again be sitting ducks .

Perfect for highly specialized commando Raids

On the other hand, a highly specialized LIMITED NIGHT commando raid, in all kinds of exotic locations hard for a human operator to get into, can certainly be useful. Places like  a window in a building in a steep mountain or to surprise kidnappers in hostage rescue operation in an upper floor in a building.

But even that, we are light years it’s not mature enough technologically. It can only fly for 10 minutes, it’s noisy, heavy (especially with extra gear), dangerous for the soldier to get burned, each unit costs 250K (although with mass production will make it much cheaper). Additionally, the new generation of mini drones, like the Rafael’s mini firefly, are tiny fraction of the cost and without the risk of being burned, and most importantly can do the many of the things a flying soldier can do. And no doubt Firefly and other nano drones are only improving overtime so even if it does reach technological maturity its uses will be extremely limited and for highly specialized situations.

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