A San Francisco startup has launched a new Valo Hyperfoil, built with a combination of carbon fiber, titanium and stainless steel, that flies over the water at 35 knots, leaving no noise, emissions or wake behind.
Boundary Layer Technologies, the company, says the Valo “is a high-performance, semi-autonomous, electric hydrofoiling vehicle with wings to fly above the water. Think of it as jet ski, but 1,000 times more awesome.”
The Valo Hyperfoil is about 11’ 6” long and weighs 595 pounds. It flies, or foils, at about 13 knots. Then it can fly for about two hours on a single charge for a range of 60 nm at its cruising speed of 27 knots.
The craft has hydrofoils forward and aft. The aft foils are mated to a high-performance 45 kW electric drive, providing adrenalin-rushing acceleration and cornering. Proprietary Skyride software controls the flight, making hundreds of adjustments every second to keep the Valo safe and level in all conditions.
The Valo has a draft of 1’ 3” with the foils retracted, and 4’ 3” when they’re deployed. For ground transportation, it fits on a standard trailer.
Reo Baird, the company’s CTO, says, “The experience is really hard to describe. Perhaps the closest analogy would be skiing in deep powder snow. More than that, though, is the pure sensation of speed combined with almost no noise. It really does feel like the future has arrived.”
Boundary Layer Technologies makes the Valo at a plant across the bay in Alameda. They cost $59,000. The first production run is already sold out. The second will be ready toward the end of next year.
Read more at http://ridevalo.com and see the video below:
