Regent's Seagliders: Missing the Mark?

[@Ben-Dixey]

Brilliant, learnt a lot from this video. Thanks very much for making it and I hope the channel grows like it ought to.

[@onewingspanabove]

Thank you for the kind words. We are trying to give back to the community by making this content. Lots of amazing information out there and glad we can do our part!

[@rlmrdl]

Yep. I don't have the technical chops, but my immediate gut response was, "yeah, nah"

[@onewingspanabove]

This year we'll find out!!

[@darrylwalker1867]

First time viewer, definitely not last time. My Bachelor Thesis was on WIG aircraft, back in ‘93 at RMIT. Love them. Keep the quality content coming.

[@onewingspanabove]

Thanks heaps! What was your thesis about?

[@grahamtaylor3580]

As a passionate ground effect enthusiast who worked closely with Hanno Fischer I very much enjoyed your video. Keep them coming - I am excited to see what you do next. Graham Taylor

[@onewingspanabove]

Thanks Graham! Very excited to have GroundEffect celebrity like you, watching the channel!

[@antonnym214]

Very nice reporting and analysis. I subscribed immediately, and I shall tell both my friends. All good wishes.

[@onewingspanabove]

Thank you for the kind words!

[@grantkelly7634]

Very patiently done, covered a lot of territory. These are fun craft, however I would have liked more discussion about the real limitations of all of these craft: Limitations by wave height, inability to safely function in adverse weather, and that glaring elephant in the room, incredible poor turning radius, particularly when other seacraft are present. Like any aircraft, they can't just hop over everything in their way, what is their stall speed if they suddenly have to hop over an unexpected obstacle...?? Again, impressed by your thoroughness.

[@onewingspanabove]

Thank you for your comment! Perhaps indeed we should do an episode to cover those areas! Thanks for the suggestion!

[@gideonporter537]

Electricity is going to be way cheaper than other fuel, and I believe distributed solar power/battery storage refueling stations will also help. Yes it obviously going to have challenges but I like to think its worth the effort, especially for more remote island nations.

[@onewingspanabove]

Agree!

[@CaptainJohn]

Very interesting stuff!

[@onewingspanabove]

That's what we thought as well! Thanks for your feedback.

[@mariocaponnetto9439]

Thanks for this video.

[@onewingspanabove]

My pleasure!

[@jepleas9159]

Even with the ground effect advantage and simpler maritime regulations, a specialized boat like this could have a hard time competing with the economic efficiency of thousands of electric airplanes described in the NASA Regional Air Mobility report. It does look cool!

[@onewingspanabove]

The advantage though they have is that the craft is certified as... a boat! Cheaper maintenance and regulation makes it worthwhile..

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

I wonder how the testing for landings are going because I have seen ekranoplan landings from within the crafts and they look like back breakers; enough to give backaches to anyone watching from desktop.

[@onewingspanabove]

Should be reasonably smooth unless you land your craft like James did here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z3qvk4R-o62DpLs

[@FL-kh7iz]

Very interesting video. Learnt a lot and would like to suggest you add carbon footprint to comparisons.Excellent video.

[@onewingspanabove]

Good suggestion!

[@RotorWorks]

Electric efficiency is measured in Wh/km so perhaps an EV should have been thrown in the mix as a range comparison. That puts this bird at roughly 333Wh/km if it had say a 100Kwh battery (assumed size) like a big Tesla Model X. As a comparison, an average driver of a model x would get 240Wh/km and 410km range from the same battery. Can we get a battery spec on the Viceroy?

[@onewingspanabove]

Good idea. No specs are available though for the Viceroy

[@rohanoreilly6384]

Greetings Paul. Thank you for the high quality video and commentary on GE craft. We would like to speak with you regarding new tech in the GE space. We have attempted to connect with you via Li. Regards. Ro

[@onewingspanabove]

Replied.

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

the airfish-8 is a class a ekranoplan and this craft (viceroy) is a class c ekranoplan.

[@onewingspanabove]

The Viceroy is either A or B depending which source you follow.

[@onewingspanabove]

The Viceroy is either A or B depending which source you follow.

[@berndffm8420]

Thank you for this brilliant video. The Seaglider is an interesting concept. But I think wings are to high and to much aspect ratio for a good ground effect. Long wings are also a problem for turns. And have high costs in a harbour. The Seaglider is more a plane flying low. The flight of the 1/4 model is not in ground effect. The WIGs I know all have an electronic system for adjusting the high, even the big russian ekranoplan. An exception are the Tandem Flairboats from Dipl.- Ing. Günther W.Jörg from germany, leaving near where I live. They are stable without electronic.

[@onewingspanabove]

No probs.. Indeed the Seaglider seems to be an airplane flying low.. They stated on the record though that their 1/4 model was indeed in GE. So within a wingspan away from the surface roughly.. If Regent do this well though, this could open up the market for other "true" skimmachines..

[@berndffm8420]

I LOVE WIGS ! I am happy with every new model on the market.

[@terke1230]

To make your speed comparison between these craft and the PC-12, you need to discuss indicated airspeed. The Pc-12 will indicate 365 km/hr at 25,000. If the Viceroy can get to 500 feet it can make it higher as the electric motors do not loose power with height as a PC-12 does. At 10,000 feet the Viceroy would true out at 420 km/hr. As for the prototype tail, note the slats added to increase the efficacy of the tail. Furthermore, note the extremely rapid pitch change of the tail as the vehicle pops out of the water indicating that the pitching moment is required for foil compensation.

[@onewingspanabove]

Luckily the Viceroy will never reach the altitudes that the PC-12 can reach!

[@rfpeace]

Audio levels! 480 subs?

[@onewingspanabove]

Full sentences!? Almost 500!

[@DavidmByrd]

Lets compare solar powered electric ship vs anything.

[@onewingspanabove]

You'll have to chat to @RCtestflight for that. :)

[@gideonporter537]

I love all the naysayers. NZ has ordered 25 already. Seems a lot of investment for a "maybe" lol

[@onewingspanabove]

Indeed! Unfortunately NZ also paid $228m for a canceled light rail! 😕

[@gideonporter537]

@onewingspanabove THAT is about longterm political will (extremely rare). Sir Dovemeyer Robinson said back in the 60s light rail would be essential to control congestion. He was right then, and now.

[@BellyUpFishGarage]

Of the 25 ordered, how many have they paid for?

[@gideonporter537]

@BellyUpFish All of them I understand. Not up front but the deals been done. Much the same fir Hawaiis Mokulele airlines....

[@onewingspanabove]

Seems to be just the signing of an agreement at this stage. No real money changed hands.

[@davetomlinson9063]

Keep trying to reinvent the wheel

[@onewingspanabove]

Without it, we wouldn't have invented human flight!

[@M167A1]

Technically possible but I wouldn't get your hopes up

[@onewingspanabove]

Hope is all we have..

[@ahrimanic7]

Only KZbin.

[@onewingspanabove]

Yup.