Hawkes and Falcon at the California Academy of Science in San Francisco

This weekend, the California Academy of Sciences will have a larger, different winged creature not far from the multi-storied butterfly habitat. The “Deep Flight Falcon,” with its six-meter body and three-meter wing spread, is designed to “fly,” not up in jungle canopy, but down into the sea.

Inventor Graham Hawkes unveiled his innovative beauty this week. He told assembled press it is the best sub he has built yet, which is saying a lot after decades of designing underwater craft for movies, science, research, and recreation. For him, “Technology has finally caught up with imagination.”

Years ago, when the founder of Hawkes Ocean Technologies was powering along the sea bottom in a wingless sub he had designed, he says he noticed how frustrated and trapped a crab looked with its limited awkward sideways mobility. He says he realized that’s how conventional subs move. He wanted, in contrast, to play in all three dimensions, like dolphins.

The latest result of that quest, the Deep Flight Falcon, is parked temporarily below a museum wall exhibit that shows hundreds of millions of years of organic evolution on the planet. The Deep Flight Falcon is machine evolution, poised on the edge of the future. Instead of acting like a hot air balloon or crab, the submersible uses its wings for a downward “lift” to fly underwater.

It’s designed for a passenger and pilot to sit in the same one-atmosphere pressure cabin. A lithium battery can power “flights” of up to 3- 5 hours. And, while the loud noises, bright lights, and unwelcoming electromagnetic signals of conventional subs tend to scare off undersea creatures, the Falcon won’t, says Hawkes which has him excited about the range of animals that may now be accessible.

Graham and his wife, Karen, told that press that the first Falcon was built for Tom Perkins to supplement his yachting life, and its coming to life in the Sea of Cortez was a tremendous thrill. Then they built one for themselves ,which they “unveiled” to the press this week, pulling off a rainbow-colored canvas to reveal Jay Tustin, Marine Technician, and Charles Chiau, Electronics Engineer, sitting in the submersible, their smiling heads in the domes.

After 20 years of experiments and prototype designs, the Falcon is the “state-of-the-art” Deep Flight version the Hawkes are offering as “our first production model” for individuals and institutions ready to pay about $1.5 million. This weekend, the Falcon sits as a shiny museum display, with her two sets of wings drawing the attention of curious museum-goers.

Although this new Falcon hasn’t gotten wet yet, plans are to put her through paces in the Monterey Bay next month and to use her to show VIPs the underwater world of marine sanctuaries as living systems, not just maps and numbers. The Hawkes want to let policy makers and poets see, firsthand, the blue part of the planet that needs better stewardship.

They also want to share the experience of the underwater realm with “communicators” and held a drawing for a ride for a member of the press. The Hawkes’ son, Oliver, pulled out the card of New York Times writer, John Markoff, to his great surprise and delight. Dr. John McCosker, Chair of Aquatic Biology at the California Academy of Sciences, eagerly awaits his anticipated flight in the Falcon, and Maria Brown, Superintendent of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, is excited about sharing the undersea parts of the Farallones with future ambassadors and communicators.

Walking past the marine life moving in all directions in the Academy’s aquarium column of Farallones ecology, over to the still “Deep Flight Falcon,” is a big tease. What can this submersible, which Hawkes considers his best yet, do in her own element? How will her lighter frame and wired flying controls help her “fly”? What is it like inside the pod re-conformed for more human comfort? What will the views be like?

Floors above where the sub is currently on exhibit, the "state of the art" digital planetarium plays a wonderful show that takes the audience from the Academy out to our solar system, and to the edges of the universe. Coming all the way back into the earth’s oceans that give us life, Siqourney Weaver’s narration gently urges us all to be good stewards.

Imagine the perspectives and knowledge and calls-to-action that flying through our underexplored oceans could provide in the future.

Now that technology has caught up with imagination, the public’s imagination needs to catch up with the technology.

For more info: Hawkes and the Deep Flight Falcon: www.deepflight.com

The Science Academy in San Francisco: http://www.calacademy.org

To find out more about the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation: www.NMSFocean.org