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A comment on The Hawai'I Seaglider Initiative – A New Approach to Travel Between the Islands. Parent comment

Re:The Hawai'I Seaglider Initiative – A New Approach to Trav... by mkl on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @02:28AM (#39100532)
Neat! I couldn't see where they intend to run it (though it may be hidden in an article). They give a 300km range, which is almost exactly Christchurch–Wellington, so I wonder if that's possible.
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Re:The Hawai'I Seaglider Initiative – A New Approach to Trav... by slyall on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @05:21AM (#39101589)
A bit more information here:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128397643/transport-revolut...

"Ocean Flyer’s seagliders would be able to fly people between Wellington and Lyttelton in an hour for $60 a seat, or between Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour and Whangarei in 30 minutes for $30, Aslam forecast."

Feels pretty speculative

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Re:The Hawai'I Seaglider Initiative – A New Approach to Trav... by phire on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @09:43AM (#39103935)
Christchurch to Wellington is a bit of a stretch for the range.

It's too far to use the Harbour infrastructure at either end. You would have to build a pier on the southern side of Wellington (say Island Bay) and then use New Brighton pier. That works out to about 295 km.

With only 300km range, it's hard to find good routes in NZ.

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Re:The Hawai'I Seaglider Initiative – A New Approach to Trav... by mkl on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @02:03PM (#39108006)
According to https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/128397643/transport-revolut... they do intend to do Christchurch–Wellington. Possibly only with the bigger 100-seater ones they've ordered though.
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Re:The Hawai'I Seaglider Initiative – A New Approach to Trav... by phire on Wednesday January 24, 2024 @04:04AM (#39115238)
Well, they only need slightly more range. 300km isn't really enough, but 350km is plenty.

From what I can tell, the design is still in development. The 300km number is probably more of a conservative estimate than an actual range. The Ocean Flyer team might be gambling on the real-world range being long enough for the Christchurch-Wellington route.

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Re:The Hawai'I Seaglider Initiative – A New Approach to Trav... by jamesvnz on Tuesday January 23, 2024 @06:12PM (#39111312)
Considering Cook Strait is one of the most dangerous and unpredictable waters in the world - I think I'll pass on flying through it! I've had some dodgy passages through the Wellington harbour entrance - as much as this should fly above it, I'd be feeling rather nervous.

That said, given how much the current ferry has issues - maybe this is just as safe.

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