Steve Fossett's Super Secret Flying, Diving, Space Bound Sub

[mark]

Steve Fossett was working on a sub that could go to the bottom of the Mariana Trench here is a link for it.

http://gizmodo.com/5059147/a-look-at-st ... ubmersible

[fx models]

Fossett was bankrolling it but

Fossett was bankrolling it but Graham Hawkes is the one who actually designed the series of subs. The news paints the project as Fossett's. but that is in name only.
Hawkes has been iterating this design and previous Deep Flight designs as you know for many years. Deep Flight and its progeny will be amazing when put into use. If Hawkes can get additonal funding down the line he will be all right. Fossett may have thought ahead to his potential untimely demise and set up a fund to be distributed to Hawkes in the event of his death. So Hawkes is probably not out of the water so to speak...

Trench ho!!!

Marc

[u-5075]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 13EB4B.DTL

Winged sub almost

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 13EB4B.DTL

Winged sub almost ready to go very deep
Tom Stienstra, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, October 12, 2008


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(10-11) 18:08 PDT -- A one-man submarine designed to dive to the bottom of the ocean, 36,000 feet deep, is near completion in a Point Richmond facility. The sub was designed for adventurer Steve Fossett, whose airplane wreck was discovered 10 days ago in the Sierra Nevada.

Tom Stienstra

The submarine is called Deep Flight Challenger and looks like an undersea airplane, that is, a sub with wings. It was designed by Hawkes Ocean Technologies and is four weeks from completion. The Fossett estate owns the sub and has not said what it will do with it.
The winged sub could start a new era for deep-water exploration. Fossett, who lived part-time in Carmel, planned to be the first to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, considered the basement of the world, just as Everest is considered the roof of the world. It could also be used to explore the depths of Lake Tahoe, where a floating graveyard is reputed to hover in the depths off South Shore, and anywhere where deep-water exploration could generate landmark discoveries.

"The Deep Flight Challenger technology is a game-changer for ocean exploration," said Graham Hawkes. "Our hope is that the Deep Flight technology will be put to good use for science and exploration."

According to Hawkes, there are five submarines in the world built for deep-water use, that is, for diving below 5,000 feet. But they are huge (more than 50,000 pounds) compared to the Challenger (under 10,000 pounds), he said. They also cost so much to build, about $100 million, that only governments can afford them (likely for military use). His winged sub is built in what he calls a "skunkworks," a 1,500-square-foot facility, and the cost is under $10 million.

"The sub weighs one-tenth the weight of the other deep submersibles and has ten times the range," Hawkes said. "That means we can transport it any way we want around the world."

The sub is designed to be operated like flying an airplane underwater, Hawkes said.

He has built 60 subs and has specialized in winged submersibles for the past 15 years. His latest was completed this month for Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins, who plans to carry it on his yacht and "fly underwater" with dolphins and other marine life.