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
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?
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!
Plus, this way seagliders can potentially utilize the same charging infrastructure as electric aircraft, boats, and busses.
I mean, it's been a reality for over a decade. This isn't new at all.
https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/apple-releases-i...
So far in our 1/4 scale experiments, the foils have shed kelp pretty well. Kelp is something the America's Cup boats and even hydrofoil ferries (like in Japan and Hong Kong) have dealt with and solved.
Tiny bug aside, I hope you find success in this venture. I'm sure there'll be a lot of naysayers, but I find it inspiring that someone is actually trying to do something in the sustainable air travel space with technology we have today rather than putting all of their eggs in the basket of yet to be seen technology.
Sharp dude, nice guy. Hope y'all win big.
They claim Mokulele as one of their customers so presumably they can travel between some of the islands.
As battery tech evolves to enable ranges of up to 500 miles, we can add routes like Los Angeles <> San Francisco and Boston <> New York. I'm excited about those.
Operating cost is about half that of an aircraft though. 100% battery electric propulsion system!
You probably want the comparison to a helicopter - because that's the same market: Can take off directly from the city, skips TSA security, seats 12.
Does the price vary and you don't want customers to know they got different deals? Or you don't want competitors to know?
In this case, you've got the added complication the aircraft is still a work in progress, and so what's actually negotiated is likely to depend heavily on timing of payments and cancellation clauses.
I am curious about whether the pricing ballpark is in the "new turboprop" or the "operating economics make it cost-effective to replace ancient piston operated aircraft in a relatively short timescale" range though. That could be a big deal for some low-use routes and in markets like Indonesia and the Philippines.