A speedboat, submarine and airplane wrapped in one
Posted 06.29.2011 at 4:00 pm
20 Comments
Water Warrior
Illustration, Eric Heintz; Photograph, Innespace Productions
Outfitted with a 1500cc engine, a watertight cockpit and six dolphin-like fins, the Innespace Seabreacher redefines personal watercraft. The 17-foot vessel can reach 50 mph on flat water, cruise beneath the surface, and launch 18 feet into the air. It’s also got an iPod-compatible sound system and a digital periscope. Summer may never be the same.
Check out this video of the Seabreacher X in action:
Tail Fin
The Seabreacher’s top rear fin acts like a car spoiler. When the craft is underwater, aiming its water jet toward the tail fin produces drag that pushes the craft’s rear downward and the nose upward, launching the vessel out of the water.
Water Jet
A single jet controls propulsion and steering. Drivers aim it with two foot pedals in the cockpit. Pointing the stream left or right initiates a turn; directing it down pops the tail up and aims the craft’s nose down for a dive.
Engine
The 260-horsepower gas engine--similar to a Jet Ski’s--generates speeds of 50 mph on the surface and 25 mph beneath. Air intake at the dorsal fin lets the craft cruise underwater while getting oxygen to the engine.
Side Fins
Two manually controlled side fins add maneuverability. Tilting the fins forward sucks the vessel deeper into the water; tilting them backward helps it rise. One forward and one back forces the craft to roll onto its side underwater or on the surface.
Cockpit
The two-seat, pneumatically sealed cockpit is outfitted with a GPS, an iPod dock and speakers. LCD screens display live footage taken from a camera mounted on the dorsal fin, which acts like a digital periscope.
Get It: Innespace Seabreacher X, From $81,000; Innespace
20 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Gadgets
Regular Features
140 years of Popular Science at your fingertips.
Innovation Challenges
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
February 2013: How To Build A Hero
Engineers are racing to build robots that can take the place of rescuers. That story, plus a city that storms can't break and how having fun could lead to breakthrough science.
Also! A leech detective, the solution to America's train-crash problems, the world's fastest baby carriage, and more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Most Emailed
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Contributing Writers:
Clay Dillow | Email
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Colin Lecher | Email
Emily Elert | Email
Intern:
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
How exactly is this news? The YouTube video you presented is from 2009!
I would get a ticket to any resort that has a few of these for use! Just to rent one of these would be worth it! It looks SO fun!
Impressive, but can it fly? Why not make a universal medium vehicle?
A hybrid hydro/Aerodynamic vehicle with solar panels on the top half of the craft that power and re-fuel the shuttle through electrolysis. Obtaining oxygen for submersing into the ocean, Hydrogen for flight propulsion. Jumping from underwater to take-off flight, and diving from flight to underwater.
It's really cool. Renting would be a knockout industry if they started one.
That's insane. For example, the US Navy has rules against suddenly surfacing. Somebody will soon get killed pulling this stunt.
I'm with you DBCooper. The concept is fantastic but the reality not so much. It looks like a menace to humans and dolphins alike.
@Brolin
Why not add space travel to your request?
@far out man hahah.. yeah for real @brolin, why not make it able to drive on land too?...oh wait, its a dolphin.
Does the dorsal fin air intake for the gasoline motor limit the depth of the dive? A canister of compressed air addition could increase drive/dive times under water.
Google "Bionic Dolphin" and see what kind of thieves the guys at Innespace are.
Buyer beware!
US Patent 5237952
Popular Mechanics had the real deal 21 years ago!
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=238053426207020&set=a.100200296659001.260.100000070923968&type=1&ref=nf
Engine
The 260-horsepower gas engine--similar to a Jet Ski’s--generates speeds of 50 mph on the surface and 25 mph beneath. Air intake at the dorsal fin lets the craft cruise underwater while getting oxygen to the engine.
Haha in the video it clearly says 45 MPH and 20MPH i guess popsci likes to add 5 extra
Swim like a dolphin get chased by a shark
I realize that it's meant for dolphin-like maneuvering, and it's not like I'm being critical or "requesting"of these peoples hard work (if i can say it is theirs)... I'm just hopeful that we'll see a vehicle not limited to single forms of transportation, but to as many of them, even space travel Far out man.
Great, mate ! Imagine your local lake being crowded by these jumping leafblowers. Like a dolphin? What a joke! Just what the world needs today is one more senseless, noisy device to blow more unfiltered gasoline fumes into the air and pollute nature in yet another previously undiscovered way. What planet are these guys from?
"Learn to Live & Live to Learn"
Alexander von Humboldt
@Brolin
yes in the future cars will be able to go deep under water, go on land, hover on water, take to the skies and lastly go deep space voyaging.
The Bionic Dolphin project was NOT intended for inland waterways, it is a research project meant for the open Ocean that goes far beyond what these idiots at Innespace are promoting.
Hi @A Nonny Mouse - Innespace custom designs each of their Seabeacher's, so they've made improvements, many of which are noted in the article, since the 2009 video. These improvements were what caught PopSci's eye.
@Splus03 - As mentioned to @A Nonny Mouse, Seabreacher models are constantly improved upon. So while it may have gone 45mph above and 20 mph beneath the surface when the video was made, recent updates have added an extra 5mph to both speeds.
Thanks for reading!
@ Katherine sorry but you've been conned too, probably by Rob Innes.
I'd hate to think a publication such as Popular Science promotes Intellectual property theft, but apparently some writers share the same ethical values as Innespace. Whatever sells magazines, typical TABLOID journalism.
Nearly every "improvement" you note were hacked but they still don't have it right and never will.
Don't waist your money on cheap knockoffs.
@Alfi2009 Yea dolphins are chased by sharks at 50mph. That sounds believable.
@Splus03: the video clearly states '40 miles an hour across the waters surface' at 2.00. Guess you like to add 5 too ;)