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On Monday, March 3, Regent’s full-size seaglider prototype was moved out of its development hangar in North Kingstown, Rhode Island and craned into the frigid water of Narragansett Bay. As anyone at the company will be quick to remind you, it went into the water because it is a boat. Insofar as it is a boat, they will tell you, it is not an aircraft.
The classification of Regent’s fully electric seaglider as a boat — or, more precisely, a Type A wing-in-ground-effect (WIG) craft — is central to the company’s business model, because it enables a much more affordable and expedient certification pathway than is available to commercial aircraft. It’s also a reasonable description of what it is. Walking around Regent’s prototype, as The Air Current did in early January, when it was still under construction, makes its maritime character obvious. That deep V-shaped hull? Boat. The hydrofoils that will allow it to pierce through waves like an America’s Cup sailing yacht? Definitely boat.
It’s a very special type of boat, however, because it also has a box tail and wings that will allow it to fly within ground effect over the surface of the water, which for Regent’s purpose is at an altitude of around 30 feet. As Regent co-founder and CEO Billy Thalheimer pointed out, that’s below the height of cruise ships and some sailing masts, so still within the realm of conventional vessels. Yet, enabling the capability requires considerable aerodynamic expertise, a marriage of requirements that is reflected in the craft’s ongoing development and certification processes.
“Half our team is aerospace engineers, half our team is marine engineers, naval architects, hydrodynamicists that are writing the control systems and designing the foils and the hulls,” Thalheimer said. “So it is truly a boat that flies. It’s less like a seaplane, which is, you know, an airplane and then strap some floats on it, right? It’s truly meant to live on the water, exist in the water from the get-go.”
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