Virgin Oceanic’s Five Dives project will see the compact, 5.6m-long sub DeepFlight Challenger make a series of exploratory dives over a period of two years, starting later this year.
The sub, built by Hawkes Ocean Technologies, can “fly” under water. This will allow it to cover much ground and to manoeuvre nimbly through sometimes dramatic ocean bed topographies.
The one-person machine will be piloted first time out by American entrepreneur Chris Welsh, who acquired the sub from the estate of adventurer the late Steve Fossett.
Welsh will take the machine into the Pacific’s Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest known oceanic point at 11,034m.
Branson will then pilot it down into the Atlantic’s Puerto Rico Trench (8605m). Further dives will be made to the bottoms of the Indian, Southern and Arctic oceans.
The sub will gather video and other data for scientific use. Some material will be made available to the public on Google Earth.
Project website - www.virginoceanic.com
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