He's inventing a ferry that can go 180 mph. And he's doing it in RI.
Name: Billy Thalheimer
Age: 31
Hometown: Natick, Massachusetts; now living in Cranston.
Position: Founder/CEO, REGENT Craft
Billy Thalheimer and his co-founder, Mike Klinker, have long been in the aerospace design field and went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology together before they started working on electric planes at Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, which was soon bought by Boeing.
After quitting their jobs after the Boeing purchase, they saw an opportunity in a 1960s-era technology: the wing-in-ground-effect vehicle, or WIG, which his company, REGENT Craft, is calling a "seaglider."
As a frequent commuter between Boston and New York, Thalheimer said there are no good options. Planes, trains and cars require about the same total time. A very fast ferry would beat all three. Add in the ability to go all electric, a complicated proposition for planes, and they had a plan.
"The routes that make sense are how to get to Nantucket; it's a straight shot, or Miami to the Bahamas, Los Angeles to San Francisco, New York to Boston, these hugely traveled routes where you're filling the gap between cars and ferries," he said.
The crafts are regulated by the Coast Guard because they stay within 20-30 feet of the water (high enough to make a banking turn without a wing hitting the water), with an estimated speed of 180 mph.
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The company moved to Rhode Island in 2022 with a $13-million tax incentive and has raised $90 million, enough to cover operations through the building and operation of a full-scale prototype that could be ready as early as late summer 2024, followed by flights at the end of the year. A ¼-size prototype has been flying over Narragansett Bay for more than a year.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: REGENT CEO Billy Thalheimer hopes seaglider is future of transportation
