These are busy times for REGENT. The American startup, which is developing a new generation of sea-skimming ground effect vehicles to transport passengers and cargo between coastal communities at speeds of up to 180 mph, has announced a whole range of news this week.
On April 14, 2023, REGENT unveiled the first full-scale mock-ups of its passenger carrying Seaglider. The first real-size prototype is expected to go into testing in 2024. The company has already been testing a smaller scale model, one quarter of the size, since 2022.
But though certainly eye-catching, this is hardly the only development to be unveiled by REGENT this week.
In line with the increasing number of pre-orders, which have now reached 500 units, REGENT also announced plans to expand its global headquarters in the state of Rhode Island. The expanded facility will have up to 600,000 feet of new manufacturing and test facilities.
In addition, REGENT revealed that it has selected EP Systems and MAGicALL as suppliers for its batteries and motors, respectively.
At the same time, two well-known figures from the American aviation industry are joining the company’s advisory board: David Neeleman, CEO and founder of Breeze Airways (previously founder of JetBlue and several other airlines), and Dennis Muilenburg, who was CEO of The Boeing Company between 2015 and 2019.
It’s also been confirmed that Southern Airways, and in particular its Hawaiian subsidiary Mokulele Airlines, are to be launch operators as soon as the Seagliders become available commercially.