Aviation company develops electric flying boats for faster, cheaper travel

A Boston-based company is developing electricity-powered flying boats to combine the benefits of traveling by air and by sea.

Founded by MIT-trained aircraft designers, Regent hopes to make regional travel between coastal locations cheaper and more efficient.

Their vehicle can fly up to 180 miles or 300 kilometers using current battery technology, and the distance can be doubled using next-gen batteries.

"Our vehicle, called a seaglider, is a wing-in-ground-effect craft that operates a few meters off the water's surface and couples the high speed of an airplane with the low operating cost of a boat," the company said in its website.

The vehicle takes off at sea instead of airports, which reduces waiting time for passengers during their travels.

"As we maneuver the harbor, these hydrofoils give us this high degree of wave tolerance, up to five feet of wave tolerance in harbors, which is basically a hurricane in most harbors," said Regent co-founder Billy Thalheime.

Currently, 400 units of the vehicle has been ordered and the company expects that the seaglider can take off on its first commercial flight in three years.

—MGP, GMA News