Virgin Working on Submarine to Reach Ocean’s Deepest Point

Sir Richard Branson is spearheading an effort to build a 'flying sub' to explore the Mariana Trench.

What, conquering space got too boring? As Virgin owner and billionaire playboy Richard Branson continues work to launch the first private orbital space flight, he’s also hoping to launch “flying submarines” to venture to the deepest point on Earth. The Super Flying Falcon sub is radically different from conventional submersibles and is designed to be able to manoeuvre quickly, or “fly,” at great depths. Hopefully it will give humans our first sustained look at the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, where alien-like life forms live at depths of 10,971 metres below the surface. In 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh dived into the trench in an un-manoeuvrable bathyscaphe but ascended after only a few minutes.