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The number of large yachts carrying submersible craft amongst their toyinventory is certainly on the increase as a growing number of owners and gueststaking their exploration of the oceans to a new level. In this issue we speak toGraham Hawkes of DeepFlight to discover more about his magnificentunderwater flying machines and Super Falcon owner Tom Perkins, who hasenjoyed exhilarating subsea adventures since acquiring the first DeepFlightmachine during his build of the imperious Maltese Falcon.

Flight of the Navigator

DeepFlight

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Though it is often to the stars thatwe look when considering undis-covered frontiers, it is easy to

overlook that vast mystery that covers the major-ity of our planet and yet remains unknown to all buta handful of our species. Even for those whose lovefor our oceans calls them to water’s surface, whatlies beneath the waves is largely out of reach dueto constraints of both physiology and technology–unless of course, you’re Graham Hawkes; engineer,inventor, entrepreneur and owner of DeepFlightSubmarines, whose underwater craft are amongthe most advanced and exciting personal sub-marines on the market. First having come to public attention on the decksof Tom Perkins’ legendary sailing yacht The Mal-

tese Falcon, these sleek, winged machines aremore aircraft than submersible in spirit. Designed to‘fly’ underwater, Hawkes’ inventions have pushedat the boundaries of a largely unchanged sub-mersible technological landscape, and have broughtdimension to the underwater exploration andrecreation experience. There is simply no otherunderwater craft that matches those produced byDeepFlight. With the recent announcement ofDeepFlight’s newest submarine, the Dragon, thecompany’s innovative array of personal underwa-ter craft is now undeniably unlike anything on thecommercial market. Hawkes’ subs glide through the water, allowing formaneuverability and control that make contactwith our oft hidden undersea life easier than was

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When asked about themotivation behind his designing

such a dynamic submersible,Hawke told u: "I wanted to swim

with the big animals."

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previously imagined. “I wanted to fly with the biganimals,” says Hawkes of the impetus to devote hislife’s work to these aquatic airplanes. And fly hehas: Hawkes is rife with tales of adventure in hiscraft that includes encounters with all manner ofsea creature including a graceful aquatic dance witha giant female manta ray, and a very closeencounter with a great white shark in Mexico-- thelatter with Sir Richard Branson as co-pilot. Having begun his career working at a defense con-tractor, Graham Hawkes was on course to latermarkedly influence submarine technology and per-ception. “Immediately after college I ended up witha defense contractor working for the Royal Navywhere I was involved with special manned sub-mersibles for military,” says Hawkes. His work soonbegan to focus on designing and building innovativesubmersible craft for offshore oil and gas explo-ration and development—mainly used in North Sea. Until Graham Hawkes, submarine design and tech-nology in general focused on submerging a craft todepth, with little attention paid to maneuverabilitysave for the most rudimentary of capabilities. Subscould go up and down, forward and backward: Gra-ham Hawkes wanted to fly—but first he had to sink. “As it was with Chuck Yeager,” Hawkes explains,“they needed a small craft to break the sound bar-rier–our first breakthrough to underwater flightwas called DeepFlight 1.”

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It was when Steve Fossett, the late American busi-nessman and adventurer, called on Hawkes andHawkes Ocean Technologies to design a potentiallyrecord-breaking submersible, dubbed “ChallengerDeep”, that would take Fossett 37,000 feet to thebottom of sea-- the lowest recorded depth at solo.Though Fossett perished in an unrelated accidentbefore the Challenger Deep was put to the test,Richard Branson and his company Virgin Oceanic,later purchased the craft and are still the ownerstoday. Though a well-known film director managedto break the official record before the Challengercould, Hawkes is satisfied that he created a techno-

logically superior craft that is still very much up tothe challenge. Branson is now committed to divingto the ocean’s five deepest points in the Challenger.Hawkes, however, had bigger goals in mind. “I was looking for new challenges,” says Hawkes, “Upuntil the Challenger Deep, my biggest challenge wasgetting to bottom of the ocean for science. Mostsubs are launched from the surface, sink straightdown and wiggle around a little bit at the bottom.The ocean is a three dimensional space, however; asubmersible craft should take advantage of this.” Itwas this innovative thinking that lead to the devel-opment of Hawkes’ underwater “airplanes”, and

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Graham Hawkes returns from adive with Richard Branson in

Mexico, during which they enjoyedan encounter with a large Great

White shark.

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Though not available to contribute tothis feature at the time of going topress, Dietrich Mateschitz –founderof Red Bull energy drink company–and his family are obviously enjoyingtheir time with their new Super Falconat their private island in Fiji.

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TOM PERKINS:THE FALCONAND DR. NO.There is no one quite like Tom Perkins: heis one of America’s leading businessmen,the father of venture capitalism, agroundbreaking engineer, an adventurer,certainly a raconteur—a sometimewriter— and unsurprisingly, the very firstperson to purchase a Super Falcon forprivate use. Perkins’ leadership in SiliconValley, including pivotal roles at Spectra-Physics, Hewlett Packard andGenentech among others, may havemade him his fortune, but it is his tastefor adventure and eye for the very bestthat sets him apart from other visionarybusiness leaders. “Graham (Hawkes) had built a prototypeof the Super Falcon,” says Perkins,recounting his first encounter with thecraft. “I took one look at it and instantlyknew how it worked—though I had nointerest in buying the thing I was lookingat; it was crude.” But Perkins wasintrigued, and later visited Hawkes at hisNorthern California headquarters whereit took under an hour for the two men tocome to agreement: two Super Falconswould be built simultaneously, the firstone going to Mr. Perkins, of course.Graham would have to settle on thesecond, the Super Falcon II. Perkins’ Super Falcon was, in manyways, a perfect fit for another famousFalcon, this one the world’s largestsailing yacht “The Maltese Falcon”,which at the time had only recently beencompleted. It has since been sold, “at aprofit,” Perkins mentions in recountingthe story. Though Tom Perkins is wellknown for his business acumen, TheMaltese Falcon is a testament to hisengineering genius. The yacht is still oneof the most advanced ever built, andentirely designed and built by the manhimself. “I did it to prove that it could bedone,” he says of the extraordinary ship.“I was the contractor, I managed theproject myself, I designed the sailingsystem and the widgets, I wrote thesoftware-- I spent years designing it.”

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puts Graham Hawkes in a league of his own.With this evolution of undersea exploration in mind,Hawkes utilized the sum of his vast knowledge ofsubmersible design and engineering, beginning withits early military application, then industrial use, itsapplication in science and exploration and finally, forthe pure satisfaction and joy of flying through theocean’s vast blue underworld. “Up until we createdthe Super Falcon, there was no market for sub-mersibles other than for government use; followingthe Challenger, I decided that I would build a craftthat I wanted-- not for anyone else,” he says. “With the DeepFlight and all of our craft, you don’tsink to the seabed and look at a crab-- you’re flyingin beautiful blue space with a shark or a whale. Youare truly in a different world.” Now producing

underwater craft several generations removedfrom the first, ‘experimental’ underwater flyingsubs, Hawkes’ inventions have created a new kindof transportation—and inspired an entirely new wayto think about our interaction and travel underwa-ter. “If you are seeking adventure and your ownsatisfaction, then the best thing you can hope for isto have encounters underwater with the big ani-mals: whales, manta rays and sharks. We have donethat. Those experiences blow your mind.” The result of Hawkes’ passionate pursuit was theSuper Falcon, the 4th generation of his flying sub-marines. “The Super Falcon is where we perfectedeverything—I’m still in love with it,” says Hawkes.The design, which does indeed look like a small fixedwing aircraft, is striking; so much so that when Tom

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For anyone who has seen her in person,with its gleaming carbon fiber hull andtowering masts, there is no doubt of hismastery of the medium. He also has agreat sense of humor: while still in hispossession, nautical flags spelled out themessage, "Rarely does one have theprivilege to witness vulgar ostentationon such a grand scale." It isn’t knownwhether her new owners had thegumption to keep the missive. Given pride of place on the foredeck ofthe groundbreaking vessel, the SuperFalcon was companion to many ofPerkins’ adventurers in seas around theworld. “It is enormous fun,” he says ofthe sub. “It’s really an underwaterairplane; you can dive it straight down,go straight up, do rolls and aerobatics--you scare the wits out of people whenyou do that – it’s a lot of fun to be ten tofifteen feet below surface, to see all ofthe marine life.” He used the sub in theCaribbean, in Mexico and laterextensively in the South Pacific, wherethe sub found a new home on Perkins’latest vessel, now up for sale, Dr. No—a37- meter converted military vessel thatPerkins and crew used to explore theseas around Palau, Tahiti, Australia, NewCaledonia and the Kingdom of Tonga,where he famously became the firsthuman being to dive with Humpbackwhales at depth—in the Super Falcon, ofcourse. “Because it hadn’t been donebefore,” he says, “ we didn’t know if theywould flee, or even attack—it turned outthey were very curious. They cameclose to us and saw that we werepeople; they did ballets for us; it wasquite exciting.”Perkins estimates that he’s loggedbetween 120 and 130 hours in his SuperFalcon, “and has never had anyoperational problems.” After nearly fouryears worth of adventures, he’s recentlyput Dr. No up for sale, and with it, theSuper Falcon. Now, instead of seeing himgliding into the sea in his submarine, youmight catch a glimpse of him speedingalong Northern California’s highways inhis recently delivered Pagani Huayra—the very first in the United States. “It’san incredible car—a pure sports car,” hesays. And he would know.

his decision was almost instantaneous. “He wantedthe first one and he didn’t want to wait, so we builttwo together: Tom had first one, I had the second.”Perkin’s Super Falcon I brought new attention to thefirm, as the sub was given pride of place on the fore-deck of The Maltese Falcon (the similar names arecoincidental), where it was put to great use (seesidebar). Perkins was so enamored of the craft that,even after selling The Maltese Falcon, he purchaseda second boat, Dr. No, and retrofitted it specifically

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PILOTINGSUPER FALCON CPT.CHRISTIANTRUTER:MASTER OF DR. NOHaving explored many places around theworld with Super Falcon, we were excitedby the amazing conditions andoceanography of French Polynesia. Ourfirst day of Submarine operations offAnse Amyot was particularly memorable.It dawned clear with no wind and a tinyswell on the outer reef. I was to be on thefirst dive with Mr.P and after our pre-divecheck we were towed by the tender out ofthe pass towards the gin clear water ofthe Pacific. Our first dive took us north at adepth around 100 to 130’ (30-40m)through schools of reef fish and sharks.After about 30-minutes we took theFalcon down the wall and into the darkerwaters. Along this wall we found a largechain of marine caves at around 60-80meters, these caves may never have beenseen by man before as they lie in water nooften dived and never at this depth. It is aremarkable thing to see something andknow you are first. Soon we were back atthe pass and after flying in entrancethrough schools of feeding fish wesurfaced and were towed back to Dr.No.After a quick lunch we managed two moredives before the light faded and the deepwater turned an inky black. The nextmorning the wind was again light and thesea flat. So we jumped straight in to theSuper Falcon and explored the wall to thesouth of the pass. In the south there wereno more caves but we did spend severalminutes traversing a school of pelagictrigger fish (the biggest school I have everseen and anyone that I have talked toabout it have ever heard of). We thenheaded back to the pass to fly along theedge of the drop-off with the sharks andbarracuda. At the entrance we had awonderful flight in congress with a huge

Perkins, founder of legendary Silicon Valley venturecapital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Buyers anddesigner of the world’s largest sailing yacht, saw itat the Monaco Yacht Show, he was intriguedenough to later pay Graham a visit at his San Fran-cisco-area headquarters. “Tom wanted a submarinefor himself,” says Graham, “and wanted somethingthat no one had. If anyone can find what is the mostcutting edge, it is going to be Tom.” After showingPerkins the Super Falcon design on the computer,

"We peered into achain of marinecaves no humanhad previouslycast eyes on..."

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to afford its continuing use. Before the Super Fal-con series, and now with the new Dragon, anypersonal submersible required a crew to bothmaintain and operate it. “Our craft have a verytough set of requirements,” Hawkes says. “Youaren’t going to have a specialized crew of sub-mariners on board—the craft have to be used by ayacht crew. We had already built for military; ourmilitary craft are equally as complex as those builtfor the commercial market—they simply can’tafford to fail—so you have to deal with things quitedifferently. Reliability is imperative. Our craft will beused by non- experts—previously subs came withthe crew of people who built them, but that wasn’tgoing to happen anymore.” Both models fit twopeople, one behind the other, with 360-degreeviews courtesy of the signature acrylic domes that

surround both pilot and passenger. Powered byrechargeable underwater lithium ion batteries, anddesigned to give off minimal electrical charge so asnot to repel sensitive underwater creatures, thesubs are able to operate for nearly 6 hours at atime. The low frequency electrical output coupledwith extremely silent mechanics and propulsionallow for enhanced interaction and minimal distur-bance to undersea life. Talk to anyone who hasowned or operated either a Super Falcon or thenew Dragon and stories of very close encounterswith large marine animals are common. After TomPerkins came Richard Branson for second time,who purchased a Super Falcon, and then mostrecently Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz,whose Super Falcon Hawkes delivered to an undis-closed location in Fiji.

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eagle ray for a few minutes beforesurfacing and heading back to the yacht–‘the good doctor’, Dr. No. When Mr.Pcooked up the plan for the Dr. No project,one of the primary goals was to fly theSuper Falcon submarine with whales.Later this developed into a plan to filmwhales from the Super Falcon with hope towatch and record behaviors not previouslywitnessed. As a concept it does not appearthat hard. Step 1: Take Super Falcon to thewhales. Step 2: Fly with whales. Step 3:Record. Sounds easy…. Well after a year ofpreparation it all started to come togetherwhen 45lb (20kg) of camera equipmentarrived on Dr. No in Denarau, Fiji, prior toour departure for Tonga and our search forwhales. In order to film–after much debateand discussion–we settled on a new NikonD-4 camera in a Nauticam housing to bemounted on the nose of the Super Falcon(Falcon) and remote controlled viaEthernet on a tablet in the rear cockpit. Onarrival in Vavau we enjoyed severalencounters with whales, but whilst thereare many in the Vavau group there is also alot of territory and they don’t hang about.On the morning of the 19th however wemoved location and conditions wereperfect. There were whales around butvery far off. Around 11am a group of fourwhales started to head towards the Dr., sothe decision was made to launch theFalcon and tow it towards the Whales.When the Falcon was 100-yards from theresting group the tow was released andthe Falcon flew at 130’ below the tendertowards the group. At first there was justthe sapphire blue Pacific, but slowly greatdark shapes emerged and then took form.We were doing it! We were flying a two-man submersible with humpback whalesin their domain, the open blue! The firstdive of the day was the most successfulwith 3-4 minutes cruising with a groupconsisting of a mother and calf and twoescort males at around 130’ depth. One of the escort males inspected theFalcon closely and then on an agreedimpulse the four giant mammals movedout of view… but a first had been achieved.Never before had a powered submersibleflown in close proximity to Humpbackwhales, but Super Falcon had–and wehave the footage to prove it.

So enamored was Tom Perkins with his SuperFalcon, that after selling Maltese Falcon he acquired

Dr. No and had her refitted specifically to allow forthe continuation of his subaquatic adventures.

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If the Super Falcon is akin to flying an airplane,the Dragon is akin to flying a helicopter—albeit ahelicopter that virtually anyone can learn to fly injust a few hours. “For those who are adventur-ous or have a love of flying- they will choose theSuper Falcon. It takes a couple of days to learn tofly it,” says Hawkes. “For those who are lookingto do normal exploration, and want ease of use,they would choose the Dragon. Even yourguests can just jump in and drive the thing!”Among other advancements, the Dragon canhover like a helicopter allowing for relaxedunderwater exploration—if you want to “playwith whales,” as Graham says, then the SuperFalcon is your craft of choice. Like all of Hawke’s subs, the Super Falcon Mark Iand Mark II and the Dragon are positively buoyant,making them quite safe. Conventional sub-mersibles use ballast to descend, meaning thedefault motion is to sink; DeepFlight subs are the

opposite. A built in fail safe mechanism insuresautomatic returns to the surface if anything goesawry. “The Falcon can be dived straight down orstraight up vertically and your ears don’t feel athing because the pressure hull holds back thewater,” says Hawkes—a remarkable feat of engi-neering that is rather surprising to anyone whohas had previous experience SCUBA diving. TheSuper Falcon can be charged overnight and isready for a whole days use, the Dragon is capableof rapid charging. Oxygen is supplied by medical oraircraft grade oxygen tanks, which are carriedexternally. A microcomputer controls life supportand the constantly- refreshed atmosphere, whichis much like those used on a spacecraft. Piloting both craft is very simple— owners arealways encouraged to enjoy being at the helm oftheir own sub. There are two seats, but “youdon’t need a professional pilot; you don’t buy aFerrari and give the keys to a chauffeur. You are

going to drive or fly it by yourself!” Hawkesexclaims. The fly- by- wire controls allow forintuitive operation—and can easily be learned inan afternoon. On your left hand is a throttle andon the right is a small fly by wire joystick; withyour left hand as you advance, the Dragon willdive; when you pull back to the mid point, it willhover, and when you pull back, you will rise. Itreally is as simple as that. A microcomputer takescare of safety, making sure that you don’t go toodeep or too close to surface. However, this is nota hands off experience: the owner is flying thecraft, but safety systems will advise if anyadjustments to depth or speed need to be made.Says Hawkes: “I have had the pleasure of takingkids and kings underwater and everyone leaveswith a huge smile on their face”The Super Falcon is priced at USD 1.7 million, theDragon is slightly less at USD 1.5 million. Both crafttake 9 months to complete.

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