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MIT Graduate Unveils Ambitious 'Boat-to-Flying-Car' Prototype Targeting 2025

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  Published in Automotive and Transportation on Sunday, November 30th 2025 at 5:36 GMT by Business Insider

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MIT Graduate Unveils Ambitious “Boat‑to‑Flying‑Car” Prototype Set for 2025

A fresh wave of innovation is cresting from the halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In a Business Insider feature that ran in November 2024, a recent MIT graduate – Dr. Maya Patel, PhD, formerly a research assistant in the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department – announced the development of a hybrid “boat‑to‑flying‑car” that she hopes will hit prototype‑ready status by the end of 2025. The project, which is already drawing attention from both academic circles and the burgeoning “flying‑car” startup ecosystem, represents a bold leap toward a truly versatile, multimodal personal vehicle.

From Classroom Theory to Skipper‑Pilot Reality

Patel’s fascination with amphibious vehicles began during her undergraduate studies when she co‑authored a paper on hydro‑foil‑augmented lift for small watercraft. The research, published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, demonstrated that a lightweight foil‑array could significantly reduce drag while generating vertical lift. It was this insight that seeded her graduate thesis – a design that merges hydro‑foil propulsion with a detachable, fold‑out wing system capable of generating aerodynamic lift for flight.

In the Business Insider article, Patel explains that the core of her concept is a “dynamic‑transformation chassis”: a 15‑ft aluminum‑carbon‑fiber hull equipped with a rotating wing‑pan mechanism that extends outward in 90 seconds, turning the boat into a low‑speed, short‑range aircraft. The prototype is powered by a hybrid drivetrain: twin electric‑powered water jets for surface travel and a compact, ducted‑fan system for vertical lift. In flight mode, the boat’s hydrodynamic structure becomes the aircraft’s fuselage, and the foil‑array morphs into a set of small, retractable wings that provide lift during take‑off and glide.

Patel’s advisor, Professor Alan Choi, emphasized that the real challenge lies in ensuring structural integrity and weight optimization. “You’re essentially designing a boat that must meet the stringent safety standards of an aircraft,” Choi told Business Insider. “Our team spent months refining the finite‑element models to keep the total mass under 300 kg while still providing a 60‑mph cruise speed on water and a 200‑mph cruise speed in the air.”

Funding, Partnerships, and a Roadmap to 2025

The article notes that Patel has secured $1.5 million in seed funding from a mix of sources: a grant from MIT’s Innovation Initiative, a corporate sponsorship from HydroAir Dynamics (a leading manufacturer of hydro‑foil components), and a $200,000 angel investment from a venture capitalist known for backing transportation disruptors. She is also participating in MIT’s “Innovators Lab” accelerator program, which provides design mentorship, prototyping resources, and a network of potential investors.

In terms of a development timeline, Patel and her team have laid out a four‑phase plan:

Patel expressed optimism that a functional prototype will be flight‑ready by mid‑2025, aligning with the FAA’s “Personal Air Vehicle” regulatory window. “If we can achieve certification by then, we could see a limited commercial release by 2027,” she said.

What Makes This Project Stand Out?

While the “flying car” narrative has long been dominated by high‑speed, single‑engine concepts, Patel’s design offers a “sea‑to‑sky” transformation that could be more practical for early adopters. The system bypasses the need for a dedicated runway or heliport; it simply launches from a calm water surface, performs a brief vertical climb, and lands on a beach or dock. This approach potentially reduces the infrastructure costs associated with deploying a fleet of personal aircraft.

The Business Insider article also draws comparisons to the Terrafugia Transition and Joby Aviation’s S4 – both of which focus on vertical‑take‑off‑and‑landing (VTOL) capabilities. However, Patel’s design is lighter and less mechanically complex, relying on a single, fold‑out wing mechanism instead of a full‑span tilt‑wing system. She cites the Airborne Systems Inc. patent (US 10,987,654) as an inspiration, noting that the fold‑out wing concept can be scaled down while preserving aerodynamic efficiency.

Additionally, Patel’s hybrid propulsion system is designed to be fully electric. The article links to a recent MIT press release on the “Solar‑Hydrogen Hybrid Battery” project, which could power the vehicle’s electric motors while reducing the overall battery weight. If the prototype can achieve a 400‑mile range on a single charge, it would significantly outpace many current electric aircraft prototypes.

The Bigger Picture: Toward an Integrated Mobility Future

Beyond the technical details, the Business Insider piece frames Patel’s work as part of a larger movement toward “urban‑to‑rural multimodal mobility.” As cities become increasingly congested, researchers and entrepreneurs are exploring how to combine the efficiency of maritime transport with the speed of air travel. The article links to a 2023 MIT symposium where scholars discussed “Coastal‑Sky Networks”, envisioning a system of interconnected water‑landing strips and sky‑ports that could deliver goods and passengers across entire regions.

Patel’s vision is to enable a “drop‑off and pick‑up” service in coastal communities where traditional road infrastructure is limited. By providing a vehicle that can glide from a pier to a destination, she hopes to reduce travel times from 2 hours by car to 30 minutes by flight. “The beauty of the boat‑to‑flying‑car is that it keeps the low‑noise, low‑speed profile of a boat when you’re on water, but then it becomes a quiet, efficient aircraft in the air,” she explained.

Current Status and Future Outlook

As of the article’s publication, Patel’s team had completed a scaled‑down, 1:3 model that successfully performed a tethered take‑off in a wind tunnel, showing promising lift curves and control authority. The prototype has also passed initial safety tests for hydro‑foil stability and wing deployment reliability. However, a full‑size, untethered flight test remains the next critical milestone.

The article highlights a potential partnership with the U.S. Navy’s Marine Corps Innovation Office. If the prototype can demonstrate reliable amphibious operations, it could attract interest for logistics or search‑and‑rescue applications. Additionally, a collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) could help refine the system for weather‑resilient operations.

Patel acknowledges that regulatory hurdles will be significant. “The FAA currently does not have a clear certification pathway for hybrid‑mode vehicles,” she noted. “We’re actively engaging with the FAA’s Emerging Aviation Technologies (EAT) office to outline a compliance roadmap.”

Bottom Line

The Business Insider article presents a compelling narrative about a MIT graduate who is pushing the boundaries of personal transportation. By fusing hydro‑foil dynamics, fold‑out wing mechanics, and electric propulsion into a single, modular platform, Dr. Maya Patel’s boat‑to‑flying‑car concept could redefine how we move between coastlines and cities. With a targeted prototype release in 2025 and ambitious plans for commercialization, the project sits at the nexus of academia, industry, and the future of urban mobility. Whether it will successfully navigate the maze of regulatory approval and market adoption remains to be seen, but the prototype’s early successes and the enthusiasm of its backers suggest that the idea is far from a pipe dream.