In what looks like a full-scale model of a drop ship from Halo, a startup called Regent has developed what it describes as electric seagliders that they want to fly over the waterways of Japan. They just raised $60 million in Series A funding from some heavyweight investors including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, and now they’ve struck a partnership with Japan Airlines to ferry customers across Japan’s waterways.
The company has 55 employees, and completed testing of a quarter-scale prototype on Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay late last year to prove that its seagliders can “float, foil and fly” as expected. The company says it has orders for more than 500 seagliders representing some $8 billion in future revenue.
Regent aims to fly its electric seagliders over the waterways of Japan