Sir Richard Branson Quietly Shelves Virgin Submarine Plan

An anonymous reader writes with news that Sir Richard Branson's goal of diving to the deepest part of the ocean has been put on indefinite hold. "Sir Richard Branson has quietly shelved his latest adventure: an ambitious plan to pilot a submarine to the deepest points of the world's five oceans. The entrepreneur had a grand scheme to explore both space and sea. But his plan for the first rocket ship charging passengers for trips to the edge of space is in jeopardy after the craft crashed during a test flight, killing a pilot. Now Sir Richard's dream of exploring the lowest points on Earth is also on hold. Virgin Oceanic's DeepFlight Challenger submarine was unveiled in a blaze of publicity in April 2011, with Sir Richard describing its mission as 'the last great challenge for humans.' He had hoped the 18ft-long submarine, designed to 'fly' along the ocean floor, would make its maiden voyage to the bottom of the Pacific's Mariana Trench – at a depth of 36,000ft, the lowest known point on Earth – by the end of 2011, or failing that, by 2012."

Comments

Simpsons did it

[ArcadeMan]

Maybe he should ask James Cameron to borrow his deep-diving submersible.

No so easy as throwing money at it, is it?

[TWX]

I guess Mr. Branson is discovering that applied science and engineering is a little harder than telling one's vision to one's lieutenants and instructing them to make it happen.

The Apollo programme was 4% of GDP, by itself. If I understand correctly, to date it has been the most expensive and ambitious applied sciences and engineering project that mankind has ever undertaken. I commend those that want to push the private bounds to recreate Apollo-type objectives, but even with techological improvements and increased knowledge from learning from the past it'll still be VERY expensive and VERY difficult.

Re:No so easy as throwing money at it, is it?

[Viol8]

If he actually threw money at these stunts it might help, but everything he does is on a - relatively - shoestring budget. Branson is really nothing more than a publicity seeker. If something works he gets all the kudos while the people who did the actual work you never hear about. And if it doesn't , well he'll just smile than kilowatt smile and do the whole humble awww-shucks-can't-win-em-all schtick and quietly steer the media onto his next stunt. Its getting really tedious.

Re:No so easy as throwing money at it, is it?

[wagnerrp]

The Apollo programme was 4% of GDP, by itself

The Apollo program cost ~$20B, over the better part of a decade, during a time when the US GDP was rose from around $600B to $1T. So, it used roughly 0.3% of the GDP over that time period.

Re:No so easy as throwing money at it, is it?

[DerekLyons]

The Apollo programme was 4% of GDP, by itself.

4% of the Federal budget, not GDP - and even then, it only touched that value for two years.

Re:No so easy as throwing money at it, is it?

[kellymcdonald78]

Actually the cost of Apollo is dwarfed by the F-35 program. Apollo was about $110 Billion in current dollars (about the same price as ISS), the F-35 program is $1.5 trillion.

Can't say I'm surprised

[Viol8]

Branson has a track record of seriously underestimating the difficulty of the challenges he picks. Plus he seems to believe he can replicate serious engineering achievements - eg space flight - on a shoestring budget. Well sorry, but you can't. And I suspect the same goes for his submersible. Diving down 7 miles takes some seriously well thought out and strong engineering, not just some recreational sub with a few extra inches thickness of hill.

Re:Can't say I'm surprised

[Registered Coward v2]

Branson has a track record of seriously underestimating the difficulty of the challenges he picks. Plus he seems to believe he can replicate serious engineering achievements - eg space flight - on a shoestring budget. Well sorry, but you can't. And I suspect the same goes for his submersible. Diving down 7 miles takes some seriously well thought out and strong engineering, not just some recreational sub with a few extra inches thickness of hill.

Very true. Submarines are very complex craft that operate in a very hostile environment, and driving one takes skill, practice and teamwork. Flying along the ocean floor may sound fun and straightforward, and it is until you accidentally hit something and Davy Jones starts letting his water into your people tank.

Re:Can't say I'm surprised

[ColdWetDog]

What's really interesting about this tale is that is was designed for Steve Fossett, a friend of Branson's for a single dive into the Marianas trench. It was bought off of his estate (along with a catamaran mother craft) for a measly one million dollars. At that price, one of the oceanographic institutions should have picked it up as it would be pretty useful for shallower dives - lots of interesting places in the ocean not quite as deep.

But Branson, the PR hack that he is, wanted to take it down repeatedly to abyssal trench depth, something the designers had hissy fits about. Seems silly. Not much to see at the very deeps. Much more fun at a couple of hundred feet. If you want to scare yourself, you can just book passage on a Nigerian ferry or similar foolish stunt.

Re:pretty sure

[Immerman]

Well, there are many legends about various individuals who did such a thing. However, if there's any truth to the legends then those individuals are obviously keeping a low profile these days. Can't say I'd blame them - they'd probably start a war between those who would make them laboratory subjects and those who would make them gods. And I can't imagine either option would actually be very appealing, at least after the first few centuries.

Lazy headline writers - where's the "Deep Six"?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Sir Richard Branson Quietly Shelves Virgin Submarine Plan

"Quietly shelves"...really? From the department of less crappy headlines, here's a couple of freebies:

"Branson Deep Sixes Own Submarine Mission"
"What Do Sir Richard Branson and the Red October Have in Common?"
"Virgin Dive Aborted Before Anything Gets Wet"