The breakthrough
Ocean’s new hull form typically reduces hydrodynamic drag on take-off by 40%, allowing increased max weight and useful load. With lower drag in cruise reducing energy requirements and both flaps in propeller-slipstream and stub-wings in ground-effect augmenting lift, these cumulate to offer step-change useful-load, payload-range and work-efficiency advantages.
The benefits make the Ocean seaplanes exceptionally suited to carbon-neutral power systems and accommodating of both their weight and cost penalties.
Precedence
Ocean seaplanes are bringing step-change improvements with respect to the major purchase-decision and operating opportunity factors, to disrupt and expand seaplane markets.
1. Load capacity and performance benefits
Ocean’s hull form typically reduces hydrodynamic drag on take-off by 40%, allowing increased max weight and useful load. Lower drag in cruise reduces energy requirements. Flaps in propeller-slipstream and stub-wings in ground-effect augment lift. These cumulate to offer step-change useful-load, payload-range and work-efficiency advantages.
These benefits make the Ocean seaplanes exceptionally suited to carbon-neutral power systems in accommodating their weight and cost penalties.
2. Greater wave-handling capability
The new Ocean hull penetrates waves, damps pitching and minimises shock-loads. Tolerance to large waves allows reliable operations in common open-water conditions and services to expand on to weather-sensitive coastlines.
3. Access to universal coastal facilities
With wings folded, Ocean seaplanes can taxi silently to and from harbours using an electric water thruster, berthing or docking anywhere that similar sized vessels can go. This multiplies accessible destinations. It opens diverse options for resupply, engineering and shelter from wind and waves.
4. High levels of safety
Favourable fatigue properties and being unaffected by saltwater, the Ocean composite structures are expected to extend airframe lives to forty years (from typically less than five years for seaplanes in tropical salt water). With reduced maintenance costs and down-time, higher natural utilisation and work-efficiency advantages, the Ocean seaplanes will slash life-cycled costs per seat-mile.
6. Night and IMC operations
New onboard sensing, guidance and display technologies combined with new water-based lighting technologies will enable safe commercial water operations at night. This has far reaching implications in increasing competitiveness with landplanes, revenue capability and value in Ocean seaplane ownership.