Deep Flight Super Falcon Changes Luxury Travel

A company called Hawkes Ocean Technologies is changing the way people think about maritime vacations. Founder Graham Hawkes has been building submersibles and underwater vehicles for over a decade, but in the past his focus has been underwater research and filming.

Hawkes and his team changed their focus from more traditional submersibles to underwater flying machines and the Deep Flight Super Falcon was born.

According to Hawkes,

Deep Flight submersibles are designed to be more agile than any creature living in the ocean -- with the exception of dolphins.

The first vehicle of its kind designed for commercial use, the Deep Flight Super Falcon can reach depths of 1,500 feet, travel at 6 knots, and stay submerged for up to 5 hours.

The first client for the Super Falcon was venture capitalist Tom Perkins, who wanted a toy to keep on his mega-yacht, the Maltese Falcon. The base price: $1.3 million. Another model, which has open cockpits and cannot dive as deep as the Super Falcon, sells for $350,000.

The current state of the global economy has had a profound impact on luxury travel, but it's likely that Hawkes will still have plenty of buyers to keep him and his team busy.

In recent years the ultra-rich have begun looking for new ways to entertain themselves at sea as mega-yachts become old hat. Plus, the prospect of doing barrel rolls with whale sharks and being the first pair of human eyes look at some exotic coral reef is tough to pass up, even if it means breaking the bank.