Hawkes Ocean Technologies Launches Kickstarter Campaign To Fund DeepFlight Hydrobatics
The First Crowd-Funded Underwater Expedition
Hawkes Ocean Technologies (HOT) announced today that it launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the DeepFlight Hydrobatics Expedition, an underwater research project to validate the flight characteristics of the Super Falcon Submersible. The DeepFlight Hydrobatics Expedition will be the first ever crowd-funded underwater research expedition, making ocean exploration accessible to anyone with a computer and a spirit for adventure. The Company is looking to raise $45,000 by August 30 to fund the week-long expedition, scheduled for early October in Lake Tahoe.
The Expedition: The DeepFlight Hydrobatics Expedition is the culmination of more than fifteen years of work in introducing underwater flight technology. The expedition will focus on testing the speed, range, and maneuverability of HOT’s fourth generation submersible, the DeepFlight Super Falcon, and will include an attempt to carry out the world’s first underwater loop. The project is historically significant in that it will both validate underwater flight as a tool for ocean exploration, as well as establish a new paradigm by using crowd-sourced funding to support an underwater expedition. Given the death of funding for ocean exploration, this format could be used in the future to support a myriad of ocean-related scientific and exploratory expeditions.
The Technology: The Super Falcon represents a new class of high performance, positively buoyant manned submersibles. Its patented winged design gives the craft unprecedented range, speed and maneuverability, transforming the elevator experience of conventional submersibles into a no-holds barred flight through blue space. Hawkes Ocean Technologies expects its DeepFlight winged submersibles will open the oceans for a new era of ocean adventure and exploration, and is already bringing people on underwater flight excursions through its Flight School and Corporate Retreats programs, as well as selling its submersibles to private owners, including venture capitalist Tom Perkins and entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson.
Graham Hawkes, Founder and CEO of Hawkes Ocean Technologies stated, “Our DeepFlight submersibles have captured the imaginations of millions of people around the world who once only dreamed they could fly underwater. With the DeepFlight Hydrobatics Expedition, we are now reaching out to the public to help us validate and participate in underwater flight. We are very excited to be working with Kickstarter to launch the first crowd-funded underwater expedition. If you want to help pioneer underwater flight, and even have a chance to join us on the expedition, please visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/724942316/deepflight-hydrobatics-expedition?ref=email to support the DeepFlight Hydrobatics Expedition.
In the near future, we hope to be opening up underwater flight even further by taking more people on underwater adventures, and perhaps even selling kits for people to make their own DeepFlight submersibles.”
Hawkes Ocean Technologies is a privately-held company based in the San Francisco Bay Area that innovates advanced technology solutions across many industries, and in particle, designs, builds and operates the world’s most advanced vehicles for ocean exploration. The Company works with private clients, industry, science and government to innovate advanced, cost-effective solutions for deep ocean access. With its DeepFlight series of manned submersibles, the Company has introduced underwater flight, and expects its DeepFlight vehicles will open the oceans for a new era of adventure and exploration. Check out DeepFlight at http://www.deepflight.com or http://www.facebook.com/deepflight.
