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Regent – Electric coastal travel

regentcraft.com

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Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#91

Hey guys - Billy Thalheimer, Co-founder and CEO of REGENT here. A friend reached out to say this is blowing up - so cool! (Thank you beefman lol) Here to answer any questions

how much is one of these going for?

This is one of those "let me connect you with our sales team" questions ;)

Operating cost is about half that of an aircraft though. 100% battery electric propulsion system!

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a real solution when for some strange reason it's impossible to build them? Also I love trains. I moved back to Miami and there is a train called Brightline that goes from Miami to Orlando. It's extremely nice and my preferred mode of travel. Imagine if we had a bullet train that just spanned the entire east coast...

Eminent domain isn't that popular anymore unfortunately. Florida being one large empty red state, it's a lot easier to muscle 500 miles of new track into what's already there. To go up the whole east coast you'd have to wrestle with a half dozen different political machines. Even just limited to Florida, the line hasn't gotten past West Palm (yet), and was stalled for years due to lawsuits from just 2 counties.

Not the most popular opinion, but I believe it could be a net win for all: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/railroad-national...

The analogy that comes to mind is airports.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#93
post #10

It would be pretty fantastic if this could go San Francisco to Los Angeles. A traditional plane flight takes so long at the airport, it ends up barely worth it. High speed rail in California would also be great, but they've been working on it for 15 years already, and at this rate, it doesn't look like the project will finish in the next 50 years.

Even if it took similar transit time, it would be half the cost, and you don't have to go SFO first :)

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#94

Hey guys - Billy Thalheimer, Co-founder and CEO of REGENT here. A friend reached out to say this is blowing up - so cool! (Thank you beefman lol) Here to answer any questions

Thanks for inviting questions. This is a very fun idea that basically turns the Spruce Goose’s single flight in ground effect into a scaled reality. Amazing.

With what is likely 1500+ pounds of battery, what is the operational charging/swapping strategy for carriers? Put another way, after one hour of operation (to exhaustion), how long is the vehicle expected to be idle?

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly is coastal travel?

Lots of examples! To pick a few: - Manhattan to the Hamptons - Los Angeles to San Diego or Santa Barbara - Interisland in Hawaii, New Zealand, Japan, Caribbean, Pacific Northwest - The global ferry market, huge in places like the Mediterranean, North Sea, Baltic Sea, English Channel, Southeast Asia. Actually, there are as many ferry passengers every year as there are airline passengers! ~4.5B on both... its a key mod…

Keep in mind that in some cases ferry travel only makes sense because the ferry can also carry passenger vehicles/trucks with freight. But like an airplane this new vehicle is passenger only.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#96
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seaglider entry to service is slated for mid-decade so you're spot on, all these are pre-launch sales. We're one of the few companies in the space with firm, nonrefundable deposits and contractually obligated pre-delivery payments (that scale with milestones as you mentioned) on the full first year of these orders. We take off at the periphery of harbors and fly over the open water in-between. Seagliders have 5ft wav…

Wave heights in the 8-13ft range are common along the US west coast (Northeast Pacific Ocean) and that doesn't shut down commercial aviation at coastal airports. https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=46042 But still there are many more protected waters where a WIG vehicle could be viable.

The specific tolerance within that 8-13ft range is driven by wave period. Long period waves lets us operate more towards that 13ft end because you can contour the waves.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#97
post #94

Hey guys - Billy Thalheimer, Co-founder and CEO of REGENT here. A friend reached out to say this is blowing up - so cool! (Thank you beefman lol) Here to answer any questions

Thanks for inviting questions. This is a very fun idea that basically turns the Spruce Goose’s single flight in ground effect into a scaled reality. Amazing. With what is likely 1500+ pounds of battery, what is the operational charging/swapping strategy for carriers? Put another way, after one hour of operation (to exhaustion), how long is the vehicle expected to be idle?

We're using lithium-ion batteries (for now), so charging is like any electric car. As long as you have the power to fast charge it, you can do a full batter in ~45 mins.

That's max range (=180 miles) at 45 min charge. So let's say we're doing 90 mile missions between the islands of Hawaii, you only drain half the battery, so charge time is only ~20-25 mins - which is how long it takes passenger to unboard and board anyways!

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#98

Hey guys - Billy Thalheimer, Co-founder and CEO of REGENT here. A friend reached out to say this is blowing up - so cool! (Thank you beefman lol) Here to answer any questions

Milwaukee to Chicago please!

That would be an awesome route! Especially considering the lake waves are probably never higher than the cited maximums.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#99
If you haven't encountered wing-in-ground-effect vehicles before I have a treat in store for you... go and read about the Soviet Lun-class ekranoplan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lun-class_ekranoplan

Then check out this Livejournal post where someone snuck into a dry dock and took photos of a rusty old one... including photos taken inside!

https://igor113.livejournal.com/51213.html

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