One thing was very clear at the recent Future of Electric Vehicles conference in San Jose – innovative design and development of electric vehicles is not restricted to the automotive sector. The case-in-point is the Deep Flight Super Falcon submersible. The two-occupant underwater vehicle was designed and manufactured by Hawkes Ocean Technologies, and is one of only two in the world. Like most of the other Hawkes vehicles, the Super Falcon is more like an underwater airplane than a submarine, soaring through the water column instead of rising and sinking. Company founder and Chief Technical Officer Graham Hawkes was a presenter at the conference, and showed us just how his submarine is able to “fly” underwater.
The first Super Falcon was launched in 2008, and delivered to venture capitalist Tom Perkins for a price of US$1.2 million. The craft in the video belongs to Graham Hawkes himself. The positively-buoyant little submarine weighs 4,012 pounds (1,820 kg), can descend to 1,000 feet (305 meters), and is powered by two 48 V lithium-phosphate batteries. It can cruise for around six hours, and supply life support for 24 hours.
Full specs are available on the Deep Flight website.