Moon pilot test-drives Navier’s Quanta hydrofoil boat

NASA astronaut Victor Glover, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot who flew around the moon on Artemis II this spring, has taken the controls of a new military-oriented hydrofoil boat on San Francisco Bay, according to its builder, Navier.

The Bay Area company said on social media on Thursday that Glover became “the FIRST person outside Navier’s core team to fly Quanta,” its 30-foot boat that lifts its hull out of the water on wing-like foils. Navier said Glover and his wife came aboard for a flyby during San Francisco Fleet Week, which ran from Oct. 4 to 12.

The company didn’t say how long Glover was at the helm or what he thought of the boat.

Navier pointed to Glover’s background to explain why it invited him. “Quanta’s flight controls use the same principles as a fighter jet’s,” the company wrote.

Navier’s Quanta-D electric hydrofoil carries astronaut Victor Glover during a demonstration at San Francisco Fleet Week.

Glover, a U.S. Navy captain, flew the F/A-18 Hornet as a naval aviator and test pilot before joining NASA. He piloted SpaceX’s Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station in 2020 and was the pilot of Artemis II, which launched on April 1 and carried the first crew around the moon in more than 50 years.

Navier said it was “an honor” to have Glover aboard.

A hydrofoil works like an airplane wing under the water. As the boat speeds up, the foils generate lift and raise the hull above the waves, cutting drag. Navier’s boats use computers that adjust the foils constantly to keep the deck level in rough water.

Quanta is the name of Navier’s hybrid-electric version of its N30 boat, and the company has been pitching it to the U.S. military. In August, Navier said its Quanta-D variant ran mission profiles for Department of War customers, including special operations evaluators, holding pitch and roll to less than 1 degree in sea state 4.

Earlier this year, the company showed its N30 at the Sea-Air-Space conference, where CEO Sampriti Bhattacharyya said U.S. Navy admirals and operators called it a “game changer.”