What’s old is new again when it comes to aircraft that can take off and land on the water. This message permeated throughout the Future Opportunities for Seaplanes & Amphibious Aviation conference—held February 11 in Miami—in various forms: retrofitting existing airframes with more sustainable electric/hybrid-electric powerplants; dusting off decades-old designs in hopes of restarting their production; and clean-sheet low- or zero-carbon-emissions aircraft.

Collectively, the hope of speakers and attendees at the second annual event is to rekindle the era of flying boats that launched commercial aviation more than a century ago, but in a more environmentally friendly way. As it happens, the first commercial passenger flight was conducted in the Benoist XIV flying boat on Jan. 11, 1914, spanning the 18 miles from St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida.

That’s not to say that commercial seaplane service ever went away, but this segment is dwarfed by airline service provided globally by jets and turboprop airplanes. For example, Harbour Air, a seaplane operator in Vancouver, British Columbia, conducts about 300 flights per day and transports 500,000 passengers annually. But overall, it’s still a niche industry.

In his keynote presentation, Rob Ceravolo, CEO of South Florida-based seaplane charter Tropic Ocean Airways, said progress in this segment “is hindered by a lack of regulatory adaptability,” challenging leaders to be creative to break the barriers. Other issues are similar to the broader aviation industry: availability of funding for aircraft programs; limitations of sustainable technologies, especially battery power density; and lack of infrastructure for electric aircraft charging and alternative fuels such as hydrogen.

Regulations Are Making Waves

On the regulatory front, several panelists said that when aviation authorities are unsure if seaplane operations are permitted under the regulations, the default answer is “no.” Thus, they said, operators need to be persistent to get regulators to dig deeper into the rules to hopefully get to “yes.”

Seaplane Pilots Association executive director Steve McCaughey said governments often lack data and officials are typically worried about seaplanes mixing with boat traffic. “But we have lots of data from Chalks International Airline, which operated in Miami Harbour. It’s a great example of how seaplane operators can safely coexist in a very busy boat area,” he explained.

Rob Peres, managing director of Miami-based Southeast Insurance Group, said the Caribbean has the greatest need for seaplane operators. But he admitted that getting regulators there on board to loosen rules for seaplanes will be difficult because these types of aircraft were used to transport drugs in the Caribbean in the 1970s and 1980s.

McCaughey hopes that medevac operations and disaster relief delivered to Caribbean nations via seaplane will help to repair the industry’s image there. After Hurricane Dorian in 2021, “We collected 200,000 pounds of relief supplies for the Bahamas and other nearby nations that were delivered by Tropic Airways’ Cessna Caravan floatplanes,” he noted.

Beyond safety and regulatory issues, another big threat is environmental concerns. “Officials are concerned that water in floats can spread disease between bodies of water, threatening marine animals and plants,” according to McCaughey. “There is an increased focus on spread of coral disease. Invasive species being carried by seaplanes are also a threat.”

On the plus side, there is some government financial support for developing next-generation flying boats. Dan Peabody—CEO of Mallard Enterprises, which is developing the ME-1A, a 19-seat, all-composite amphibious airplane powered by two turboprop engines—said there are government grants available, especially for military applications.

“Our first focus is security and national defense,” added Kevin King of Anatra, which is working on an autonomous amphibious cargo airplane. “There are conflicts coming and governments are asking companies developing amphib aircraft to come up with solutions.”

Harbour Air Leads the Way on Sustainability

While several companies just talk about developing sustainable seaplanes and amphibious aircraft, Harbour Air is already doing the work. In 2019, the operator formed a partnership with MagniX to retrofit one of its de Havilland Beavers turbine singles to battery-electric power. In December of that year, it conducted the world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft flight.

The company’s eBeaver project continues but has been slowed by the pace of development of the MagniX 650 engine, said Harbour Air CEO Bert van der Stege. “This delay is also helping, given improvements in battery technology,” he added, admitting that battery power densities are still insufficient for aircraft.

So the company is using this time to shift gears to tackle electric charging infrastructure. “This is the next big challenge for us,” he said. “The ground infrastructure for electric aircraft has a long way to go to get to commercial operations. Compounding the issue is that we work in wet environments.”

Funding isn’t a concern for van der Stege, as the company has turned to “insetting” to pay for eBeaver development. He explained: “We became the first seaplane operator to include carbon offsetting costs into every airfare. But we were paying for carbon offsets to grow forests in other countries. Instead, we decided to redirect that money from offsetting to ‘insetting’ to directly invest in our ePlane project.”

Since carbon offsetting is voluntary, the arrangement has received a thumbs up from Canadian government officials, said van der Stege. “Insetting costs passengers just C$1.22 [86 cents] per route. In fact, customers are asking how they can give more to help fund our eBeaver program.”

Harbour Air’s end goal is to have electric aircraft that can fly current routes and be recharged within 30 minutes to keep the same schedule as it does now with fueled aircraft.

Right behind Harbour Air are several start-up companies working on clean-sheet, low- or zero-carbon seaplanes that can carry between nine and 19 passengers. Three of these entrants—Elfly, Jekta, and Tidal Flight—spoke at the Miami event.

New Wave of Start-ups Take the Plunge

Norway-based Elfly is aiming for a pure battery-electric seaplane because, as company founder Eric Lithun explained, “it will have fewer parts.” However, the start-up is still deciding on which propulsion system to use for Naomi, its 12- to 19-passenger carbon-fiber amphibious aircraft.

While electric charging infrastructure is a concern, Lithun said he is coordinating with electric boat manufacturers to develop common charging ports that can be used by both boats and seaplanes at docks. “We can have good power systems at docks that can be shared by various vehicles.”

For Lithun, the biggest challenge is finding funding. “A lot of capital has been plowed into eVTOL aircraft, and electric seaplanes are not seen as exciting by investors.”

Meanwhile, Jekta is all in on hydrogen fuel-cell power for its 19-passenger PHA-ZE 100 flying boat, selecting ZeroAvia’s electric propulsion system in July. “We looked into batteries only, but they’re insufficient for this size of aircraft. Batteries would have to be six times the power density they currently are to be viable,” said George Alafinov, co-founder and CEO of the Swiss company.

While admitting that “no one in the U.S. is investing in hydrogen,” he noted that South Korea, Japan, India, and even Gulf states are. “Surprisingly, the Gulf is ready for hydrogen,” Alafinov said.

He also pointed out that jet-A is expensive and hard to get in Africa, so he sees opportunity for hydrogen there as well. “Hydrogen is in the water,” Alafinov added. “The opportunity is closed-loop: solar plus water equals hydrogen.”

He believes the market is there for a hydrogen-powered seaplane. “If we fail, it’s because of our design. Capital needs to understand that the market exists.”

But Tidal Flight is taking a “more practical” approach, opting for hybrid-electric for its planned nine- to 12-seat seaplane dubbed Polaris, co-founder and CEO Jude Augustine told attendees. “We’ll get an 85% reduction in fuel burn without a lot of compromise on aircraft capability.”

Augustine explained that his company has considered aircraft certification from the very beginning. Tidal Flight is using ex-FAA Administrator Billy Nolen as an advisor on Polaris, in addition to engaging with the FAA’s emerging technology group. The company intends to certify the aircraft under FAR Part 23 rules, though it is not providing any estimated dates for such approval.

At the Miami event, Tidal Flight and Tropic Ocean Airways inked a letter of agreement for the latter company to purchase 20 Polaris amphibian aircraft. The deal is valued at more than $100 million.

In the concluding “Back to the Future” session, Blythe Metz, CEO of Wild Goose Aviation, outlined his company’s plans to restart production of the Grumman Goose flying boat. “There is a big need for commercial seaplanes,” he said while noting that such airplanes can also be useful for search-and-rescue missions. “There’s no shortage of consumers in this space.”