For $1.5M, DeepFlight Dragon Is an "Aircraft for the Water"

Zothecula writes No one with red blood in their veins buys a sports car and hands the keys to a chauffeur, so one of the barriers to truly personal submarining has long been the need for a trained pilot, not to mention the massive logistics involved in transporting, garaging and launching the underwater craft ... until now. Pioneering underwater aviation company DeepFlight is set to show an entirely new type of personal submarine at the 2014 Monaco Yacht Show next week, launching the personal submarine era with a submersible that's reportedly so easy to pilot that it's likely to create a new niche in the tourism and rental market.

Nice!

[Anonymous Coward]

One single drug run^h^h^h^hdive and the thing has paid for itself.

There are cheaper ways to kill yourself

[Anonymous Coward]

If not having to learn a lot about one of the most dangerous environments on this planet is meant to attract customers, then this is obviously going to end badly.

There are reasons for that

[dargaud]

Going too deep and particularly up too fast will get you killed. Going underwater is dangerous. More so than being up in the air where the only risk is basically hitting the ground.

Re:Nice!

[Qbertino]

One single drug run^h^h^h^hdive and the thing has paid for itself.

How long can it dive? What mods does this thing need to lengthen the dive+travel time to a few days or even a week or two, depending on its speed? Extra Oxygen, toilet substitutes, extra battery packs, stronger motors to tug the drugs, etc.

Could maybe be done, but it's not easy. Truth is, I think by now it's actually more feasible for the cartells to get their hands on decomissioned subs and their former crew. Or something along those lines.

Re:Pressurized hull

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember reading about the prototype for these subs 20 years ago. The idea then was a ceramic hull that could run straight up from the bottom of the Marianas Trench to the surface at full speed, without any need to depressurize.

The subs can surface as quickly as they want. The problem is the submariners aren't in a pressurized compartment so they can't surface all that fast.

The coral will need guard rails around it

[jimbolauski]

A tourist with 30 minutes of training piloting a sub near coral reefs is a bad idea, the pilots will be looking at all the neat things and not paying attention. Depending on how powerful the currents are they could get swept out and run out of fuel fighting the current. These things are far from idiot proof and you should expect drunk or stoned college students on spring break to be using them. It's a great idea until you realize you are giving dumb-asses a $1.5 million dollar vehicle to drive through priceless and breathtaking wildlife sanctuaries, while we are at it let's start renting out Bugatti Veyrons to drive through the Louvre.

Re:The coral will need guard rails around it

[wagnerrp]

So give the thing a low power sonar system and automatic collision avoidance system. Give it instructions that if the battery gets below a certain point, it shuts down the engines, auto-surfaces, and starts up a rescue beacon.