Rhode Island company aims to revolutionize coastal travel with seagliders
Billy Thalheimer may well be the modern-day Luke Skywalker.
"I'm a huge "Star Wars" fan," said Thalheimer.
His childhood Halloween costume of the "Star Wars" hero says it all.
The co-Founder and CEO of REGENT. They are testing and soon building 12-passenger Seagliders, all in Rhode Island.
The seaglider floats, foils and flies up to 30-feet above the ocean.
“Hydro foiling is leveraging hydrofoil technology from America's Cup or the sale GP series. They basically underwater wings they lift the sea glider out of the water," said Thalheimer.
The coastal travel company is all in Rhode Island, with a main office of 100 employees in South Kingstown.
They just broke ground on a manufacturing plant that will employ 300 people in Quonset. It is set to be fully operational in 2026.
There will also be a test center on the water, where the prototype just launched in Narragansett Bay for testing.
“Humanity was really constructed from the earliest days around the coast, because that's how you got around. So, we see it as a return to that now that the roadways and airports are congested," he said.
A high school sailor in Natick, Massachusetts, where he grew up dreaming of a galaxy far far away.
Thalheimer met his best friend and now REGENT co-Founder and CTO, Mike Klinker at M.I.T.
“I wanted to be an astronaut, wanted to explore, want to sort of go to the stars, go to Mars.”
But his flight pattern would change, from the space to skies.
He was on the cusp of his dreams of flying a fighter jet when his life changed.
“I got Lyme disease and it crushed me," said Thalheimer. ”So mine was very sort of mental.. Just unbelievable brain fog and fatigue. There were days I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t find words and form sentences.”
He was forced to move back home to his parents basement in Natick.
A year-and-a-half later, he moved into an apartment with a mutual friend who became his girlfriend, and eventually his wife.
“Sort of brought my life back and has supported me through this crazy career in this crazy growth," said Thalheimer.
That's when his worlds of sailing and space would collide and the result was REGENT.
Recognized by Gov. Dan McKee at the State of the State and recognizable names investing. Mark Cuban being one of them. He’s already secured $9 billion in pre-orders.
“That $9 billion, I think is actually relatively small in terms of the opportunity we have ahead of us," he said. "So basically there is about seven Teslas worth of batteries on board.”
Their simulator puts you in the front seat of the controls.
A simulator of the seaglider at their office puts you in the front seat of what it would be like on the water. The fast growing venture is challenge to this man who likes control.
Asked what was the one thing he’d change about himself and he answers. “I wish I could sleep less to be honest. I say one of the pieces of advice and guidance my wife has given me is that this is a very long play. This will never get the easier," said Thalheimer.
No surprise what his favorite movie of all time is.
It’s "The Empire Strikes Back.”
With his own light saber, his inner Luke emerges at a recent company Halloween party. Costume or not, its clear. The force is with him.and about to take flight.
“If we change the world and I was just a moderately successful engineer that would be amazing. Very few people get that opportunity to leave my mark on the planet," he said.
