Professional BoatBuilder - April-May 2018

APRIL/MAY 2018 29

HIGH SPEED: Foiling, Part 1

English Channel, but they chiefly

serve Asian markets.

Back on Puget Sound, Talaria IV

also runs on a canard foil system

Displacing between 110 tons and

115 tons, they carry from 167 to 400

passengers. Some ran in the Hawaiian

and Canary Islands and crossed the

 e squadron of PHMs was sta-

tioned in Key West to run drug inter-

diction operations for the U.S. Coast

Guard. Despite their reliablilty and

performance, all PHMs were decom-

missioned in 1993. Five were broken

up, and one, USS Aries (PHM-5), sur-

vives as a privately owned museum

exhibit. 

From Jetfoil to Bayliner

All that military R&D didn’t go to

waste. Based on the canard foil con-

 guration of the PHMs, the Boeing

929 Jetfoil, a passenger ferry for civil-

ian use, was debuted in 1974 by Boe-

ing’s Marine Division.  ese massive

vessels proved that foiling technology

and waterjet propulsion could scale

up to a size that made commercial

sense. Nearly 50 of these Jetfoils were

commissioned for service until the

mid-1990s.

Boeing’s brochure shows the sensors and control systems, based on analog computers, at the heart of the formidable PHM

vessels armed with missile launchers and a 76mm gun. Only six were built, and they ended up on drug-interdiction missions for

the U.S. Coast Guard from their base in Key West, Florida.

The Jetfoil 929, a hydrofoiling passenger ferry with waterjet propulsion, was also

developed by Boeing Marine Systems. Nearly 50 units were built, and most operate

in Asian markets.

BOEING MARKETING BROCHURE (BOTH)

WIKIMEDIA HONG KONG

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