Sailing through the seas is full of adventures, but you miss 29 percent of the world when you’re on a yacht.
A company from Switzerland called AirYacht gives you the chance to hook your ship to a massive helium-filled airship and take a pleasure cruise through the skies in a yacht.
We have covered a flying catamaran before, the similarly named Air Yacht, but this one is a hybrid vehicle.
Designed by two experienced engineers, Guillaume Hoddé and Matthieu Ozanne, who share a passion for flying, AirYacht’s hybrid vehicle combines flying and sailing. French yacht designer Franck Darnet designed the vehicle.
The AirYacht consists of two parts: a helium-filled airship, and a streamlined luxury yacht that is coupled under the airship.
When in flight, the yacht serves as the airship’s gondola, housing the crew. To cruise on the sea, the yacht is lowered down on a set of cables, then released once it reaches the water’s surface. The process is reversed when it comes time to attach the yacht back to the airship.
AirYacht will use the largest rigid airship to come on Earth as a flying vector, with a length of 656 feet (200 meters) and a height of 164 feet (50 meters). The airship will be powered by an air and helium propulsion system, this will reduce the energy needed for air navigation drastically while providing a speed of 50 knots (57 mph/91kph), while the yacht runs on another sustainable power source, an electric engine.
While it can sail and fly, the vehicle can also be set on land via a set of struts that are deployed from its hull, and will have no impact on visited places as it requires no ground infrastructure.
The luxury yacht offers a housing capacity of 8,072 square feet (750 m2), and 3,767 square feet of terraces (350 m2). The three-story yacht will be 171 feet long by 43 feet wide by 36 feet high (52 by 13 by 3116 meters) and will incorporate five to six cabins. Along with the 12 passengers and three flight crew members, it will also be capable of accommodating a 12-person “hospitality crew.”
The indoor space of the luxury yacht includes a gym, a sauna, and a swimming pool.
But after talking about this innovative and luxury hybrid vehicle, what surprised us the most was the AirYacht’s price positioning will be around the price of a 260/295 feet (80/90meters) superyacht.
AirYacht is the transition
Concerning the ultra-exclusive superyacht industry, AirYacht is the transition, AirYacht engineer Hoddé told Interesting Engineering. “The fuel consumption of our first units will be 10 to 50 times lower than an equivalent 60m superyacht. And the usage of raw materials to build the AirYacht is five times lower than the equivalent 60m superyacht. This is clearly a transition,” he added.
Hoddé also revealed that AirYacht is planning to implement a new kind of cruise; aircruise. He says that their technology is not made for traveling from destination A to B but for leisure, yachting, sightseeing, and cruising.
Hoddé told that he believes that all industries have their role to play in the energy transition and added, “It goes the same for the luxury industry. People participate in the energy transition by changing their gas-powered cars to an EV. Same in the luxury segment: Ferrari is becoming electric!”
Orders for AirYacht are open, and the first delivery is planned for the end of 2026