The ferry slides over the surface of Puget Sound, closing commuters in half the time, with the state’s giant car taking the same water.
Sounds quite futuristic. Tell that to Boeing who went in the 1970s and 80s.
For more than a decade, local aerospace giants have brought jet plane technology to the commercial passenger boat market, building dozens of hydrofoil ferries around the world.
The boat, called the 929 Jetfoil, is not only by the hope of wider use of state ferry officials, but also by “hisking island residents” who feared that the swift boat would bring quiet red people Filled with locals.
It began in 1959 when the company began researching and developing hydrofoil technology.
By 1967, the technology had been proven with Tucumcari, a 75-foot patrol gunboat hydrofoil used by the Navy in the Vietnam War.
Tucumcari’s advanced technology has convinced Boeing that its hydrogen-based innovation will help address “population growth, traffic congestion and pollution” in major cities around the world.
That’s how the Jetfoil was born.
In 1973, the company sold 10 jetfoils to four buyers, and locally promised that the boat could carry 190 passengers for 80 cents in 18 minutes between downtown Seattle and Bremerton.
By 1977, Jetfoils was receiving commercial services in Hong Kong, Venezuela, Hawaii and Japan. Additionally, it provided demonstrations between Norway and Scotland, London and Belgium, Dublin and Liverpool, and between the Canary Islands.
Locally, boats were not accepted.
In September 1977, the state Toll Bridge Authority, which then operated the ferry system, purchased two jetfoils for $28 million, covering 80% of the cost, using them to Seattle Vashon Island. Connected to downtown.
This plan was greeted by more “shou.” Fearing for convenience, the residents of Vashon said, “I have a three-word question: Who needs it?”
The following year, the seven-week trial for Jetfoil Flying Princess II between downtown Seattle and the state-paid, Kitsap Peninsula, was almost cancelled when not enough people were on board.
Flying Princess II was eventually used to connect Seattle with Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia. The Jetfoils never settled in Seattle.
Despite local interests, the global market was strong in 1980, said Robert Bateman, who headed Boeing’s marine division. Bateman had expected $750 million in jetfoil sales in the 1980s. At the time, 26 boats were ordered for commercial and military use, of which 11 had not yet been constructed.
In 1985, Boeing ended its hydrofoil business. A license was sold to build water sparge at Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Japan. Kawasaki has built the latest jetfoil – It is called Seven Island Yui – The first in 2020 to be manufactured for the first time in 25 years.
Overall, Boeing built eight hydrofoils and 28 passenger ferries for the military.
