Winged luxury submarines 'fly' underwater

On 07/03/2009
In Marine Sciences
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Super Falcon

By Steve Almasy

Most people have had dreams of flying. Graham Hawkes had dreams of flying -- underwater. Hawkes has been in the business of building underwater craft for more than a decade. In the early days, his company, Hawkes Ocean Technologies, built vehicles for researchers and moviemakers.

But in the past few years, the ultrarich have increasingly looked for cool playthings for their ocean adventures. What better toy to have on the end of your 200-foot yacht than a submarine capable of diving to 1,500 feet below the sea's surface ?

Whoops. Did we say submarine ? It's a submersible that can "fly" underwater.

The Deep Flight Super Falcon looks like a fighter jet, with its thin body, two seats, two sets of wings and two tail fins.

"We just had to tear up everything we knew about submersibles and start again on winged subs -- underwater flying machines," Hawkes said.

He said Deep Flight submersibles are designed to be more agile than any creature living in the ocean -- with the exception of dolphins.

The company says that because of the wings, the Super Falcon can go barrel-rolling with dolphins while traveling at speeds much faster than other private submarines.