Graham Hawkes, an internationally renowned ocean engineer/inventor, has been responsible for the design of many of the manned and remote underwater vehicles in use today. Mr. Hawkes currently holds the world record for the deepest solo dive, which he achieved while test piloting his Deep Rover submersible. Now he’s taking that expertise and building new submersibles that “fly” underwater. The small, lightweight “Deep Flight” series of winged submersibles look and feel more like airplanes than submarines. Flying underwater, Hawkes and his team hope to “soar” to the deepest parts of the ocean.
We dive with Mr. Hawkes and learn how these machines work. We see how underwater flight may unlock the secrets of the deep and open up a whole new world. As Mr. Hawkes says, “We live on an ocean planet!” “As we enter the 21st century, we wonder what dramatic new developments await. One profound development is inevitable and predicable: Earth's oceans are a huge, untapped resource inextricably tied to the health of our planet in ways we now are just beginning to understand.”