Underwater Overachiever
Graham Hawkes founded Hawkes Ocean Technologies (HOT) to develop state-of-the-art, affordable manned vehicles designed for deep sea exploration. These submersibles hold promise for identifying new species of plants, animals, and minerals; medical research opportunities; the discovery of new biotechnology products; and perhaps the chance to unravel our planet’s true history.
An Idea That Was All Wet
In 1996, renowned engineer Graham Hawkes launched his first experimental winged submersible, Deep Flight I, which the team designed using AutoCAD® software. Then the engineers moved to AutoCAD® Mechanical to design Wet Flight, a single-person, high-performance submersible designed for underwater filming. Most recently, Hawkes worked with Autodesk Inventor® to design the Deep Flight Aviator, the first ever winged submersible—a two seat exploration craft built to “fly” underwater.
Flying Underwater
Autodesk Inventor software was instrumental in the design of Deep Flight Aviator, launched in San Francisco Bay in 2003. Capable of actually gliding through the water much like an airplane glides through the air, these hydrobatic crafts can maneuver through the water unlike any traditional submersible.
What’s next? Hawkes will continue to work with Autodesk and our latest 3D design tools to design, test, and build the next evolution of deep sea submersibles.
“Support from Autodesk has had a huge impact on our company by greatly minimizing our design time and costs, allowing us to create and test products before any metal is cut.”
—Graham Hawkes, Founder, Hawkes Ocean Technologies
For more information about Hawkes Ocean Technologies, visit www.deepflight.com
