Winch Design in London has revealed the ultimate toy for the super rich: a 328-feet luxury superyacht that has a landing pad and a hangar for a plane. The leading designer of luxury superyachts has revealed the plans for the extravagant vessel.
The concept yacht will be 100-metre (328 feet) long with the capability to accommodate a tiltrotor aircraft. It is similar to a helicopter, and it can take off and land vertically but will need a pressurized cabin and is twice the speed and range of a typical chopper.
Although personal helicopters are the current thing for billionaire superyacht owners right now, Winch Design believes that tiltrotor planes are the next big thing, with the ability to fly above the clouds at 25,000 feet. The aircraft combines the speed of a turboprop aeroplane with the take-off and landing capabilities of a helicopter.
Founder Andrew Winch and his team are working with Dutch shipbuilder Oceanco on the project. They have revealed exterior renderings that show the trimaran yacht with a landing deck for the Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland AW609 TiltRotor, which converts from helicopter to aeroplane mode after take-off.
As for the yacht, it would have a speed of 26-28 knots (30-32 mph) using fairly standard diesel engines, plus large interior spaces and tender garages.
Built today, it would be one of the 40 biggest superyachts at sea.
Winch Design already boasts a dazzling portfolio as one of the world's leading designers of luxury homes, yachts and private jets for the super rich. Tiltrotor aircraft, meanwhile, has been exclusively used by the military for years and the first civilian version, the AW609, which carries two crew and nine passengers, is under development.
In September, Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland announced that one of the prototypes had set a speed record on a 1,000-kilometre (621-mile) point-to-point journey. It completed the 1,161-kilometre (721-mile) journey between the company's facilities in Yeovil, England, and Cascina Costa di Samarate, near Milan, in 2 hours and 18 minutes.
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