Underwater Flight with Graham Hawkes
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.”
You may watch the Underwater Flight with Graham Hawkes TV story online.
Video Games for All and Underwater Flight (episode #109), airs tonight on QUEST at 7:30pm on KQED 9, and KQED HD, Comcast 709. (full schedule)
Chris Bauer is a Segment Producer for television on QUEST, and is the producer for this story.
5 Comments
Always nice to see our stuff on TV.
See more images at http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/
Also nice would be to see a source credit once in a while…
– Peter Sloss, NOAA/NGDC (ret.)
Wow, that was really fantastic! Of course, water acts like air, only it is denser.
I felt some of the same excitment watching Graham's underwater flight as I did watching the NASA space flights in the 1960s and 1970s. Thanks for the ride!
I found this to be really interesting and agree with the point that we should be exploring our own oceans just as much as we try to explore space. There is still much to be learned here at home.
I am interested in CA remnant fisheries. I'm
wondering in the future talk about these
exotic communities and how conservation is
moving along?
David E. Hinz
Seattle, NY
Hawkes Ocean Technology unveiled the latest Deep Flight Submersible, Super Falcon, on May 13th, 2009 at the California Academy of Sciences. Scientists are now itching to get into the cockpit and “fly” far beneath the waves to study places in the deep ocean that have never been seen by human eyes. This is no ordinary submersible and the chance to explore the ocean’s depths and keep up with the animals that live there is unprecedented. Imagine diving along with a pod of Humpback whales or zooming through a school of sharks or maybe being the first person to see a Giant Squid in its natural environment! Up! Up! And away! Or um… Down! Down! And away!
For more (ahem) in-depth information on this incredible machine, check out these recent news stories:
Super Falcon sub ready to fly in Monterey Bay
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAAN17JT6M.DTL&tsp=1
Underwater “flying machine” launched
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8049179.stm
A personal deep-sea submersible takes flight
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10240098-52.html