The Coast Guard has approved crewed testing of the wing-in-ground-effect Regent Viceroy seaglider and the company is anticipating a speedy trip to certification. Although the Viceroy is technically planned to fly, albeit at less than 30 feet ASL, it's considered a boat and therefore under the Coast Guard's jurisdiction rather than the FAA's. Regent says the 12-passenger full-sized electrically-powered version of vehicle will be skipping over the wavetops off Rhode Island shortly and first deliveries are planned for 2026.
I don’t know. Thirty feet off the water at 150 knots would normally be considered “careless and reckless”, I believe. To keep that 30 feet would require constant concentration, I would think. But, I’m sure all of that has been considered.
If it’s a boat, I wonder how the requirement for a readily available throwable life preserver is going to work. Also, children under a certain age (varies by state) will have to wear life jackets when on board.
You can design wing-in-ground-effect vehicles to be stable with respect to altitude just using wing and tail shape and position. That’s one reason why these WIGs look so weird.
Best I can tell the video is all computer generated so this unit does not even exist yet and they expect it to be flying in 113 days? 500 mile range? With how many tons of batteries?
The battery in a Model S weighs 1,100 pounds and it has a range of just over 400 miles, under ideal circumstances. To fly, ground effect or not, requires much more energy than to roll, where the wheels bear the weight not the wing and the engines. Some back of the napkin math implies this will need 6,000 pounds or 3 tons of batteries. Add in the weight of the craft and no way it could carry a skilled cat to pilot it, much less a crew, passengers, and their luggage.
I don’t see how the Seaglider has solved the cross wind issues. The WIG needs to slow down and point directly into the wind before contacting the water (zero crab). A +10 knot wind will cause multiple challenges. What if the wind is coming from a direction that has obstacles?
Seaplane Pilot’s over fly the area and find a clear path to land. WIGs are not high enough and they have a high angle of attack once slowed down for transitioning between air and water. Even a 2 foot sea will easily hide a skiff, jetski or crab pot buoy. Same problems transitioning from water to air.
I’ve spent much time on the oceans and it almost never looks smooth and glassy like that. This type of vehicle is being planned for inter-island service in Hawaii. The Molokai channel with a trade wind swell that is mixing with a larger swell from a different direction get very chaotic and would not be something one would want to set down in during an emergency. I personally would not want to be a passenger. I wouldn’t want to be the pilot either. The critical moments of flight are those done close to the ground and here we are with the whole flight done close to the ground.
LOL at everyone screaming about how it won’t work when the Russians and other countries used them for decades and even had some in the their navies.
Economical on the other hand is another topic.
The Russian ones are supported by their government and the people’s money. Equating a totalitarian government subsidized project with a civilian endeavor often proves not to be such a good idea.
Although it’s a computer generated video, the prop tips look awfully close to the spray. They might need frequent replacement. I agree that at 30 feet AGL the pilot can’t really see floating obstacles or snags very well and at 150 kts there’s not much time to see and avoid. Maybe I’m biased because I’m a commercial seaplane pilot but I would rather be in a regular seaplane.
Check out “Ekranoplan” and “Caspian Sea Monster” for the full sized version. It takes all your power to get “on the step” and after that you can throttle back to step taxi. More power still to stay in ground effect. If you’re gonna fly a short distance (300 foot circle) a very heavy duty power cord would work like the control wire models, but if you’d rather go in a straight line then an electric anything is unworkable.
