Alpine wants to go beyond the automotive field to put its technological knowledge at the service of innovative projects that contribute to the decarbonization of transport. For this reason, in 2022 it created its new business unit Alpine R
Thus, the first of these is being carried out with Aqualines, a start-up that develops a new generation of ultra-fast maritime transport with a reduced carbon footprint: the “naviplanes”. In the construction of the glider boat, Alpine adds its experience from Formula 1.
“The car moves very close to the sea surface, in the same way that F1 cars operate very close to the ground. The wind tunnel techniques required to successfully perform these tests are very similar to those for those two situations. In reality, only Formula 1 technology can provide this level of understanding and knowledge to correctly simulate vehicles so close to a surface,” explained Bob Bell, BWT Alpine F1 Team Strategic Advisor.
While Formula 1 single-seaters take advantage of ground effect to give the car better grip, the “naviplanes” designed by Aqualines use it to create lift, allowing them to fly over water with minimal resistance to movement.
Guillaume Catala, who participated in the aerodynamic tests in the Enstone wind tunnel and works together with Pavel Tsarapkin, founder of Aqualines, explained the concept of these flying boats: “The front thrusters push the air under the hull and the rear thruster it generates the thrust. Once you reach a speed of 90-100 km/h, no energy is needed to maintain ground effect, which makes it a very economical means of transport.”
This is a realistic concept that already proved itself in the field in the 1960s for transporting equipment over sea. Aqualines’ approach is to develop this concept at the service of energy-efficient mobility that is respectful of marine biodiversity because, by flying over the water at cruising speed, the “naviplanes” avoid any disturbance to underwater ecosystems.
After numerous small-scale tests, the start-up is building a full-scale prototype. “The first full-scale tests are scheduled for early 2024,” explains Guillaume Catala. In the meantime, testing in the Enstone wind tunnel has allowed us to fine-tune the development of the ongoing vehicles, as Bob Bell confirms: “We’ve given them the wind tunnel model, which they can use however they want, but also all the results and information from these aerodynamic tests”.
Aqualines engineers will be able to analyze all this data and compare it with their own simulations. And if they want to further investigate certain points or test larger models, this could lead to more collaborative testing in the future.
In fact, as confirmed by Pavel Tsarapkin, Aqualines has several projects on the table: “We are studying a whole range of vehicles that can carry between two and three hundred passengers. The technological principle remains the same. After that, it is just a question of economic efficiency “depending on the uses. At the moment, we focus on the two-seater model as a conceptual demonstrator, after which we will decide which product to market first. It should have between twelve and fifty passengers.”
