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Regent – Electric coastal travel

regentcraft.com

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Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#101

Post by wthalheimer »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #35
bryanlarsen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has three modes of operation: hull, hydrofoil and flight in ground effect. So it can operate as a slow boat, a fast boat or a ground effect plane. I imagine in bad weather it would switch to a slower mode.

Bad weather usually means big waves as well, so that complicates "just go slower" particularly when it comes to the foil mode. This is what's killed the practicality of previous ground effect aircraft but perhaps they've found the right niches for this one.

Previous ground effect craft absolutely were killed by their poor wave tolerance. That's where our hydrofoils come in. 5ft of wave tolerance through the harbors and in takeoff and landing. Means we can operate with very high confidence and high utilization in most markets.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#102

Post by nradov »

noitpmeder wrote: post #29
fnord77 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so if a sailboat suddenly veers into the path of this thing, what is it going to do? Collide or ditch "GEVs may be unable to climb over or turn sharply enough to avoid collisions, while drastic, low-level maneuvers risk contact with solid or water hazards beneath. Aircraft can climb over most obstacles, but GEVs are more limited. "

Realistically these things aren't going to be operated in-flight anywhere close to the proximity of other craft. They'll motor from dock out to a predefined and clear[able] "runway". Once you're clear of a port most stretches of open water are mostly empty (even those within sight of shore) -- it should definitely be possible to plot "cruising-altitude" courses that never place you within (N) of a hazard. And if ther…

No. All of the major ferry routes they are proposing to serve already have a significant amount of vessel traffic. Seaglider operators will have to obey the rules of the road to avoid collisions just like any other boat.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#103

Post by simonw »

wthalheimer wrote: post #97
chaboud wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

Have you considered having swappable batteries, so you can skip the recharging time entirely?

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#104

Post by wthalheimer »

robbywashere_ wrote: post #12

How about a boring ass electric train

We looked into this! If you want to go regional range, you really need high speed rail (who's trying to sit on a train that goes slower than cars on the highway...)

High speed rail is prohibitively expensive. Besides the rail itself, you need to do grade separation from the ground so the rail can be flat, environmental impact studies, and in the US where private property rights are very strong, you might need to pay the land owners.

Look at the proposed price tags of the past 4 high speed rail projects in the US (none came to fruition): - California High Speed Rail: $77B - Acela High Speed Rail (NE Corridor): $150B - Texas Central: $20B - Virgin Trains Florida High Speed Rail: $4B (just Orlando to West Palm!)

I wish it was as simple as electric trains! Would save us a lot of engineering...

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#105

Post by wthalheimer »

brigadier132 wrote: post #30
asynchronous wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody wants to talk about the real solutions that are boring apparently

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...

Acela tried... $150B pricetag :(

https://www.railway-technology.com/features/featuregrand-pla...

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#106

Post by KennyBlanken »

gedy wrote: post #81
lastofthemojito wrote: post #63

I was initially skeptical, but seeing Mokulele Airlines (an airline serving Hawaii) flash by on the carousel made me consider that this might have at least some real-world uses. It's insane to me that the vast majority of inter-island travel in Hawaii (an archipelago where generally each island is visible from the next) is via jet aircraft. You have to spend hours (especially if you're checking bags) getting to the a…

> The protesters' concerns were that a ferry of this size could strike and kill whales during its voyages despite this never occurring during the years the faster Seaflite interisland ferries operated. NIMBYs ruin everything, I doubt they were really concerned about the whales.

Read on - what they were really afraid of was the dirty/smelly poors coming onto their precious island.

You see the same BS with bike paths through residential neighborhoods. Despite studies showing that bike paths increase property values, residents bitch and moan about safety/crime. They basically figure that poor/non-white people will bike into their neighborhood and rape/pillage/burn everything.

So you get a bunch of environmental concern-trolls funded by wealthy people who don't want to admit that, really, it's about race/class.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#108

Post by nradov »

wthalheimer wrote: post #96
nradov wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, that makes sense. The large swells in that region tend to be long period. Contouring the swells up and down is going to make some passengers motion sick, but probably not as bad as a regular ferry in the same conditions.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#109

Post by wthalheimer »

olyjohn wrote: post #27
AYBABTME wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically you'll see that sailboat in advance.

At 100+mph?

Yes we'll have several sensor systems onboard that augments the captains visual perception, including radar, AIS, and we're looking into computer vision systems as well.

We've been testing these sensor suites in helicopters today. Flying plenty of time to detect and avoid traffic even in crowded waterways at speed.

Re: Regent – Electric coastal travel

#110

Post by wthalheimer »

fnord77 wrote: post #18

"In high winds, take-off must be into the wind, which takes the craft across successive lines of waves, causing heavy pounding, stressing the craft and creating an uncomfortable ride. In light winds, waves may be in any direction, which can make control difficult as each wave causes the vehicle to both pitch and roll. The lighter construction of GEVs makes their ability to operate in higher sea states less than that…

That's what distinguishes seagliders from a GEV! We read the wikipedia article before setting off on this path too ;)

Seagliders are different from all GEVs (aka WIGs) and seaplanes of the past because of our hydrofoils. They lift us out of the water on stilts giving us 5ft of wave tolerance. We accelerate to takeoff speed on the foils (which lets us point into the wind even through waves) and then takeoff onto the wing and settle into ground effect.

Float -> Foil -> Fly

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