It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a boat … it’s … what is that?
Thalheimer: “A sea glider is an all-electric, battery-powered flying boat.”
Billy Thalheimer is cofounder and CEO of Regent, a company that’s developing a 12-seat seaglider called the Viceroy.
It looks similar to a plane. But when operated, it starts out floating on its hull, like a boat. It rises up onto a hydrofoil – a winglike structure that lifts it slightly above the water. Then in open water, it takes off and cruises on a cushion of air near the water’s surface.
Thalheimer: “And that is that cushion of air that birds are flying on when they fly low over the surface of the water.”
He says sea gliders could be a way to travel quickly between coastal cities, like Boston and New York or LA and San Francisco.
And because they’re powered by electricity, which can be provided by clean energy, they have the potential to be much better for the climate than planes or diesel-powered boats.
Regent has completed an operational prototype of the vehicle. Thalheimer expects to start commercial production within three years and plans to eventually scale up to larger vessels that could carry 100 people or more.
So sea gliders could provide an alternative to planes, trains, and automobiles.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
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