Virgin Oceanic: A company that will explore the oceans
The billionaire Richard Brandon, the same who founded the space tourism company Virgin Galactic, has now created a new company called Virgin Oceanic with the promise to visit the most deep, dark and strange place of our planet earth.
As you can see in the image above there is already a prototype submarine that could descend more than 11,000 meters while maintaining excellent maneuverability. Richard Brandon hopes they can reach the Marianas Trench near Guam, and break a new depth record.
The vehicle is a unique design by Graham Hawkes, created from 8,000 pounds of carbon fiber and titanium. The quartz dome supports 13 million pounds of pressure. This vehicle can navigate to a maximum cruising speed of 3 knots and can dive to 350 feet per minute.