Sea Cheetah: a flying boat carrying H3 Dynamics fuel cell
The Miami-based firm will be adopting H3 Dynamics’ fuel cell. This vehicle can fly a few metres above water, thanks to the ground effect.
It is not a plane, but a boat. And therein lies the trick. In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) only regulates aircraft flying above 50 feet. Sea Cheetah’s boat is part of the WIGE (wing in ground effect) class, as defined since 2018 by the IMO.
According to the American company, its flying boat can reach speeds of up to 250 km/h. Its advantage is that it can carry three times as much load as any other nautical or aerial vehicle. It can go 10 times faster than any other boat and it is 10 times more efficient in terms of energy consumption than an aircraft. It is therefore the ideal candidate for serving islands or providing coastal connections.
The collaboration between Sea Cheetah and H3 Dynamics is twofold. The first is to provide a fuel cell to extend the flying boat’s range (which is claimed to be much greater than that of systems based on fossil fuels). The second is to develop a hydrogen production and distribution system, with hubs to refuel the Sea Cheetah vessel.
Do you want to find out more about H3 Dynamics? Then our latest two articles about the French company should interest you. You can read about H3 Dynamics and Qdot’s drone here and about the European HyPoTraDe project there.
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Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King
