Richard Branson Announces Virgin Oceanic Submarine

I'm amazed the basic underlying idea (which I believe the designer has been working on for some time) has taken so long to get real traction. In essence, the submarine is an underwater "airplane" that uses the principle of "lift" to go down (so if its engine fails it "falls" to the surface). This means no ballast tanks and a very simple, robust design (mechanical stuff outside the bubble; life support and people inside).<p>Oddly enough the only reason I know anything about this subject is that back in 1997 I was working as a game designer working on a "Tomb Raider"-like game but with the emphasis on the underwater gameplay (I thought Tomb Raider's underwater stuff was a huge missed opportunity, since I found the few underwater bits the most scary and tense).<p>Researching the back story I looked into what was happening in submarine design (a field that doesn't get a huge amount of coverage, even among geeks) and found out about these underwater "planes" and some stuff the US Navy was experimenting with (i.e. a modified Los Angeles class submarine that could launch armed drone subs, which is a brilliant idea since the most dangerous thing an attack sub can do in combat is launch a torpedo).<p>Again -- funny how slow progress seems to be in subs compared to everything else.

This is why you should aspire to make it big. Not so you can buy a jet and fancy cars, but to go on awesome adventures and push the definition of "what's possible."<p>Or maybe I just admire Richard Branson <i>a little too much</i>.

The first and only two humans to visit the Challenger Deep did so in 1960, and in recent years not a single submersible has existed that's rated for that depth. We, as a species, have not gone back since. In contrast, twelve humans have walked on the surface of the moon.<p>Now we're finally going back! This is so cool!

I've always wondered why they continue building submarines instead of ROVs. I'm a little bit biased as I work for an ROV company, but it seems silly that you'd go down so deep (somewhat "dangerously" as well) for the experience of breathing bad air in a cramped smelly place to look out of a tiny window (since glass/plastic has to be ridiculously thick to have 1 atmosphere at those extreme depths) or video cameras, when you could do the same thing from the surface on a boat. Perhaps this technology is significantly better than the manned vessels they used during the Titanic recovery (where these stories of the manned exploration that deep come from), but it doesn't make sense to me. I suppose there's the whole "I got to experience it" thing, like people that want to go to space have, but it's not quite the same thing.

Richard Branson reminds me of a robber-baron hero from a Robert A. Heinlein novel.

Still waiting for Virgin Historic.

Surprised nobody has yet to mention US Submarines[1] their Phoenix 1000 design [2] would be (if anyone ever bought one) the largest personally owned undersea craft, and a helluva an RV. There was a BBC documentary on a guy who built a nominal atmosphere submarine that could go down 1000' (300 meters).<p>[1] <a href="http://www.ussubmarines.com/submarines/luxury.php3" rel="nofollow">http://www.ussubmarines.com/submarines/luxury.php3</a> [2] <a href="http://www.ussubmarines.com/submarines/phoenix_1000.php3" rel="nofollow">http://www.ussubmarines.com/submarines/phoenix_1000.php3</a>

<i>"The Virgin Oceanic sub has the ability to 'fly' underwater for 10 km at depth on each of the five dives and to fully explore this unknown environment." </i><p>Sounds like something out of Seaquest (anyone remember that show, lol)<p><a href="http://google.com/images?q=seaquest+stinger" rel="nofollow">http://google.com/images?q=seaquest+stinger</a>

before reading I thought this was some new virgin-branded enterprise. As in, I already had the wallet in my hands to book a trip.

not a huge fan of richard branson, but i think what he's doing is pretty cool even though this won't be affordable anytime soon for the layman. think about it, the earth is 75% water and most of that has been unexplored (except for deep sea drilling), and here we are exploring space when so much under our nose is unexplored.

I &#60;3 Branson!