Virgin berth: Sir Richard Branson to travel to deepest parts of ocean
Sir Richard Branson plans to travel to the deepest parts of the world’s oceans in a single-person submarine.
Sir Richard and a fellow explorer will take turns making five dives over the next two years to destinations including the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest point in any ocean. At 36,000ft it is deeper than Mount Everest is high.
The billionaire unveiled his new deep-sea submarine, an 18ft-long, white-and-blue airplane-like craft with stubby wings and a cockpit, at a yacht club in Newport Beach, California.
The carbon fiber and titanium craft will be capable of cruising for about 6.2 miles (10km) and can stay down unaided for 24 hours.
It was originally commissioned by Sir Richard’s close friend and fellow adventurer Steve Fossett, who died in 2007 while flying a plane over the Sierra Nevada.
Fossett had intended to complete the first solo dive to the Mariana Trench.
Sir Richard Branson said that he eventually plans to create a larger submarine that can hold more people and offer paid deep sea trips for tourists.
He said: “Man has not explored our ocean. If someone says something is impossible we like to prove it’s possible. I love learning and I’m just very fortunate to participate in these kinds of adventures.” His fellow adventurer Chris Welsh will descend into the Mariana Trench later this year. Sir Richard will then explore the Puerto Rico Trench in the Atlantic.
Sir Richard said: "The greatest danger is that there is a ship or a fishing net or something that we get snarled in on the bottom.
"In those circumstances it's like being lost on the dark side of the moon. There is nothing that can come down to rescue us.
"We are trying to develop sonar to see if there is a ship or a spanish galleon we are going to run into."
He said the technological challenge of going into space was "marginally easier" than that of going to the bottom of the ocean.
His new Virgin Oceanic venture will aim to offer trips to private individuals in the long run.
They will be called "aquanauts" and could have undersea mountains they discover named after them.
Sir Richard said around half the several hundred people who have already signed up to go into space with his Virgin Galactic venture have also expressed an interest in going to the bottom of the ocean.
He said: "We are seriously pushing the boundaries of human endeavour. It's the blue heart of the planet and we will be discovering life forms that have never been seen by the human eye."
Other dives will inlcued the Atlantic’s South Sandwich Trench, the Diamantina Trench in the Indian Ocean and the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean.
The bottom of the Mariana Trench has only been visited once by men. In 1960 the US Navy submersible Trieste, carrying US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and oceanographer Jaques Piccard, reached it.
Last year Sir Richard unveiled a three-person submarine called the “Necker Nymph,” which can be hired by guests at his private Caribbean resort, and travels at depths of 100ft.
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