REGENT begins sea trials of its Viceroy Seaglider as Commercial and Defense Opportunities Emerge

REGENT has announced the start of its 2026 test cam­paign as the com­pa­ny con­tin­ues test­ing its Viceroy Seaglid­er pro­to­type and autonomous Squire Seaglid­er drone.

In a press release issued today (Wednes­day), the cam­paign marks an impor­tant step toward bring­ing a new cat­e­go­ry of high-speed mar­itime mobil­i­ty to mar­ket for com­mer­cial and defense appli­ca­tions. 

REGENT is active­ly test­ing its full-scale Viceroy Seaglid­er pro­to­type, a 12-pas­sen­ger elec­tric ves­sel designed to oper­ate over water in float, foil, and flight modes, at its head­quar­ters in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. The com­pa­ny is con­tin­u­ing its hydro­foil­ing cam­paign and pro­gress­ing toward first flight with humans on board this year. 

Bil­ly Thal­heimer, co-founder and CEO of REGENT, said: “2026 is a defin­ing year for REGENT as we con­tin­ue advanc­ing from pro­to­type test­ing toward scaled pro­duc­tion. Demand for Seaglid­ers is grow­ing quick­ly across both com­mer­cial and defense mar­kets, and we’re focused on con­tin­u­ing to prove the tech­nol­o­gy, scale pro­duc­tion, and pre­pare for entry into ser­vice.” 

Across the broad­er pro­gram, REGENT is also con­tin­u­ing to test and opti­mize Squire, its autonomous Seaglid­er drone, val­i­dat­ing sys­tems, con­trols, and oper­a­tional envelopes step by step through an ongo­ing test cam­paign. 

Fol­low­ing a win­ter focused on design improve­ments, data review, and sim­u­la­tion, REGENT has entered 2026 with a com­pre­hen­sive test­ing effort span­ning both on-water oper­a­tions and sim­u­la­tion-based devel­op­ment. These efforts are help­ing the com­pa­ny fur­ther refine vehi­cle per­for­mance, de-risk oper­a­tions, and accel­er­ate readi­ness for com­mer­cial ser­vice and defense appli­ca­tions. 

Mike Klink­er, co-founder and CTO of REGENT, added: “Sea tri­als are where break­through engi­neer­ing is test­ed, refined, and proven. Every hour on the water, every sim­u­la­tion, and every data point helps us val­i­date our sys­tems, improve per­for­mance, ensure high safe­ty stan­dards and rein­force our robust tech­ni­cal moat.” 

From pro­to­type to pro­duc­tion 

As test­ing pro­gress­es, REGENT is also scal­ing its man­u­fac­tur­ing oper­a­tions to meet grow­ing demand across com­mer­cial and defense mar­kets. The com­pa­ny is prepar­ing to open its 255,000-square-foot man­u­fac­tur­ing facil­i­ty in Rhode Island this sum­mer, where it will build its com­mer­cial Seaglid­er ves­sels. REGENT expects its first cus­tomer deliv­er­ies in 2027. 

REGENT is scal­ing pro­duc­tion to meet grow­ing demand across com­mer­cial and defense mar­kets. The company’s com­mer­cial order book now exceeds $10 bil­lion, includ­ing recent orders from The XXV in the Unit­ed States and Syn­er­jet in Brazil.

REGENT is also advanc­ing its defense work, includ­ing an expand­ed con­tract with the U.S. Marine Corps Warfight­ing Lab­o­ra­to­ry and recent dis­cus­sions with defense lead­ers on Seaglid­er appli­ca­tions for con­test­ed logis­tics. 

Togeth­er, REGENT’s 2026 test cam­paign and man­u­fac­tur­ing scale-up mark the company’s next major step toward bring­ing Seaglid­er ves­sels into ser­vice and estab­lish­ing Rhode Island as a hub for next-gen­er­a­tion mar­itime man­u­fac­tur­ing.