Entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group founder, has just mentioned that he intends to send ordinary folk like you and I to the deepest depths of the sea using an 18-foot submersible which is capable of descending to more than 35,000 feet. That’s over 10,000 meters just in case you were wondering, and this ambitious two-year plan known as Virgin Oceanic could see the DeepFlight Challenger submersible built by Hawkes Ocean Technologies being used. According to Branson, “There is just so much to explore, so much to discover. We are going to obviously come across some fascinating creatures and learn some fascinating things that will hopefully be useful for mankind.” There are plans for five dives over the next couple of years, with a commercial testing date being set sometime in 2012 – although, we do hope that the trip price will be affordable to the masses, but that’s just wishful thinking.
Filed in . Read more about Virgin.