The Life Support System

The five foot diameter cabin is sponsored by our supporting partner Acme Metal Spinning of Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The life support system is sponsored by Hawkes Ocean Technology   (HOT) of Oakland, California. 

http://www.deepflight.com/

The life support requirements for  HOT's Deep Flight submarine are identical to the XAP parameters: 12 to 48 hours for a 180 pound "somewhat sedentary but extremely nervous pilot"!

Don Piccard, right and Graham Hawkes

with Wm. Hald "Sea Hawk" sculpture.

Aeronaut Don Piccard presents oceanographer Aquanaut Graham Hawkes the commemorative sculpture on the occasion of the launching of his "Deep Flight" submarine in San Francisco harbor, sponsored by Autodesk, the producers of AutoCad which is also XAP's CAD program of choice.  This is one of a limited edition of lost wax process original bronze sculptures by Mr. Hald that he created as a fund raiser for Peter Uberoth's America's Cup challenge.  That challenge wasn't a winner, but Graham Hawkes submarine and Autodesk are. Hawkes submarine is pictured behind the sculpture above, and below as it is prepared for dunking.

Hawkes Ocean Technology  (HOT) "Deep Flight" First Immersion

Deep Flight was designed entirely using hand drafting, then to 2-D CAD, and now to 3-D CAD, using "Autodesk Inventor". The exponential increase in computing power has changed the design process.  XAP plans to use the same process where HOT was able to cost effectively design and build the world's most advanced submersibles in a skunkworks workshop.  They will use the same process to modify the Deep Flight cabin environmental system for XAP even though only minor changes will be required to the almost "Off the shelf" equipment.