Personal mobility aircrafts are a continued obsession of the rich and the affluent, but the idea has remained pretty much curtailed to a few flying crafts popping up here and there. Now, the latest one to surface is designed as a cusp between a speedboat and a personal aircraft. It’s an aircraft but meant to remain exceptionally close to the water surface and fly at interesting speeds like a speedboat gliding above the water surface.
This is Navee WaveFly 5X, and it is designed in, yes right, China. Navee is a Chinese company that is known best for its electric scooters and has now created this two-person capacity aircraft. Touted as the world’s first consumer-grade wing-in-ground craft, it has a top speed of 53 MPH and is a novel flying experience that you cannot know until you have tried.
Designer: Navee
To try and experience the WaveFly 5X, Navee CEO took the aircraft for its first spin on Lake Taihu in Suzhou, eastern Jiangsu province. The low-altitude water mobility craft skimmed just above the water surface using ground-effect technology. The tech allows the craft to glide on a cushion of compressed air, which is trapped between the craft’s wings and the water below. So, this flying speedboat flies at about 53 MPH at only 30- to 50 cm above the water surface. The flight is smoother and without the bumps you experience in the speedboat riding over the wavy waters.
Personal mobility is obviously not a mass idea; the Navese craft is targeted at the luxury recreation market and those with a fondness for maritime transportation. The vehicle can be piloted without training or a license. It has a payload capacity of 140kg and offers a range of up to 50 miles (80 km). The craft is powered by hot-swappable batteries that can be recharged before you can prepare a cup of coffee and have it.
Being considerably lightweight to skim above the water surface, the WaveFly 5X is made from aerospace-grade carbon fiber. It does not need a runway to take off and land. It is designed more like a speedboat than an aircraft, and can therefore land and take off from over a calm waterway. All these features come for a premium price tag. The WaveFly 5x is priced at $199,999 and is available for pre-order now. You can have the craft customized in the color and accessories of your choice upon purchase.
Considering the hefty price and limited mobility, you’d expect that the Navee WaveFly 5X will not find many takers. But the company confirms that several distributors from various parts of the world have signed up with interest letters already. The launch via a test flight has definitely instilled more trust and confidence, and we are expecting to see more takers lining up in the near future.
