Regent SeaGlider: “Flies like a Pelican, Floats like a Feather”

As the all-elec­tric rev­o­lu­tion takes hold in the avi­a­tion indus­try, Seaglid­ers are the next form of trans­port with an eye to a future zero-car­bon world, reports axis.com.

U.S‑based Regent are look­ing to con­struct fly­ing boats of yon­der, but with a twist which includes a green-friend­ly pow­er­train and a new name, Seaglid­ers, offer­ing the pub­lic fast, low-alti­tude flights in coastal com­mu­ni­ties like the Hawai­ian Islands. Bil­ly Thal­heimer, co-Founder and CEO of Seaglid­er start­up, Regent Craft, enthused, “It’s a space race all over again.”

Thal­heimer co-Found­ed Regent, along­side Mike Klink­er, after years spent as an aero­space pro­gram man­ag­er, busi­ness devel­op­ment leader and engi­neer that includ­ed work­ing at Auro­ra Flight Sci­ences. He is expe­ri­enced in lead­ing all aspects of air­craft devel­op­ment from nap­kin sketch­es to detailed per­for­mance analy­sis and pro­duc­tion, cul­mi­nat­ing in flight test and oper­a­tions.

Bil­ly Thal­heimer

His expe­ri­ence also includes employ­ment as an air vehi­cle con­cep­tu­al design engi­neer, lead­ing siz­ing and per­for­mance mod­el­ling for Boe­ing’s elec­tric air taxi.

Thal­heimer holds a BS and MS from MIT’s aero­space engi­neer­ing pro­gram and con­tin­ues to hold close rela­tion­ships with this com­mu­ni­ty. As a pas­sion­ate aero­space nerd (his words), he spends free-time com­pet­ing as an aer­o­bat­ic pilot and par­tic­i­pat­ing in stu­dent out­reach events.

In a nut­shell, Thal­heimer is a seri­ous play­er.

Inter­view with Regent Founders, Bil­ly Thal­heimer and Mike Klink­er:

Found­ed in Decem­ber, 2020, Regent has already attract­ed Hawai­ian car­ri­er Mokulele Air­lines and invest­ment firm Pacif­ic Cur­rent to cre­ate a Seaglid­er net­work in Hawaii.

The ser­vice is expect­ed to begin by 2025 with a fleet of 12-pas­sen­ger Viceroy Seaglid­ers that will fly like pel­i­cans, about 10 to 30 feet over the water, at speeds of up to 180 miles per hour. There is even talk of con­struct­ing a 100 seat ver­sion by 2028. The aim is to offer a cheap­er, faster, clean­er alter­na­tive to exist­ing fer­ries and region­al air ser­vices.

The Seaglid­ers are designed to oper­ate in what’s called “ground effect.” This means when an air­craft flies close to land (or water), it expe­ri­ences less drag and more lift.

Air­craft design­ers have exper­i­ment­ed with “wing-in-ground” (WIG) effect vehi­cles for decades (the for­mer Sovi­et Union’s Ekra­noplan and Boe­ing’s Pel­i­can con­cept were two exam­ples), but the tech­nol­o­gy has been dif­fi­cult to mas­ter in rough seas.

“New tech­ni­cal inno­va­tions will allow vehi­cles to glide more smooth­ly across the waves and make the tech­nol­o­gy more fea­si­ble,” con­tin­ued Thal­heimer.

Its retractable hydro­foils, for exam­ple, lift Regen­t’s air­craft out of the water to nav­i­gate the har­bour on take­off. Then a series of small pro­pellers on the wings pro­vides the lift for slow-speed take­offs over a short dis­tance.

This so-called “blown wing tech­nol­o­gy” is also incor­po­rat­ed into the design of new air­craft being devel­oped by com­pa­nies like Electra.aero. Even DARPA, the Pentagon’s pre­miere research agency, is work­ing on a WIG sea­plane design to poten­tial­ly replace the giant C‑17 Globe­mas­ter car­go plane.

“While the Seaglid­er flies at low alti­tudes,”, said Thal­heimer, “They’re expect­ed to be reg­u­lat­ed by mar­itime author­i­ties, which may mean an eas­i­er path to com­mer­cial­i­sa­tion.”

He explains that oper­at­ing the Seaglid­er is more like dri­ving a boat than pilot­ing an air­craft where its dig­i­tal con­trols man­age sta­bil­i­ty, alti­tude and the tran­si­tions between modes in and above the water.

Regen­t’s ini­tial 12-pas­sen­ger plane called Viceroy, will have a range of around 180 miles, based on exist­ing tech­nol­o­gy, but as bat­ter­ies improve, it’s expect­ed future craft could go as far as 500 miles.

Anoth­er usage could be for coast­guards around the world, replac­ing the present heli­copters, or even mil­i­tary pur­pos­es like pick­ing up pilots from downed air­craft.

While, Thal­heimer has attract­ed USD28 mil­lion invest­ment fund­ing to date, more is required to bring the ini­tial nap­kin sketch to actu­al com­mer­cial pro­duc­tion. Regent is plan­ning a full-scale pro­to­type of the Seaglid­er by the end of 2023.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.regentcraft.com/seagliders/viceroy

(News Source: www.axios.com)

(pics: Regent)