Lighter-than water submarine with inverted wings

I apologise for being somewhat off-topic.

A week or 2 ago on UK television I saw about a small (one-man) submarine that was lighter than water and it had two pairs of wings (one pair front and one pair rear) like an an aeroplane's but shorter and with the aerofoils upside down, so that it could "fly" down like an aeroplane flying but the other way up. Please do you know anything about such a thing? Google search found nothing.

Is there a web forum about submarines?

 

It is driven by a jet ski engine and needs air. You will also need air to breath unless you wear a silly mask type thing that gives you oxygen.

Submersion is only seconds and total submersion is not possible as the snorkle fill with water and stops /ruins the engine.

 

Is this it?
http://www.seabreacher.com/

 

I seem to remember that the submarine that I saw on the television had a more rounded bow and was not shark-shaped. It was going along underwater for several minutes well below snorkel depth.

 

Most submarines operate at neutral buoyancy and dive using hydrodynamic forces generated by the 'planes. Diving using ballast alone is very, very difficult to control with conventional flooded tanks with an airspace, as used on the vast majority of submarines.

There have been several positively buoyant designs built over the years, in fact I helped build a delta wing composite one for taking a towed diver to depth maybe 30 years ago. They work OK, but have a high power requirement, due to the high induced drag from the high negative lift generated by the 'planes. As power is usually at a premium on a small submarine (non-nuclear) it's better to design for neutral buoyancy to reduce the negative lift required and hence reduce the induced drag.

 

There is a company called Hawkes Ocean Technology that makes submersibles as you described. They are touted as safer than traditional submersibles since they must drive themselves underwater and thus if they lose power will return to the surface. They are also designed to be faster and more maneuverable than most submersibles. I know that the company was working with Richard Branson to come up with a subemrsible to go to the bottom of the Marianas Trench; I don't know what the status is currently. Hawkes is a brilliant engineer and very practical guy who has designed and built some very simple but very capable designs.

 

Described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkes_Ocean_Technologies

 

Water pressure rises with depth, I read that wiki later on pc but take it pressurised oxigen more than inverted wings make it dive. There's also underwater gliders on wings that glide down over a long distance, at the bottom convert liquid oxigen to buoyant gas, rise to the surface and glide like a glider down again. Used for oceanografic research such subs cross oceans that way

 

It might have been skipper you saw on tv.

 

Seabreacher X

 

Hawkes Ocean Technology website
http://deepflight.com/subs/dfa.htm
http://deepflight.com/subs/Merlin_specs.pdf

 

With this (shark-shaped) type, if it dives below snorkel depth:-
(1) Does the snorkel automatically shut off to keep water out?
(2) How deep can it go on its momentum?

 

WTF else is a snorkel supposed to do?
Have you even bothered to look at the website?
http://www.seabreacher.com/faq

 

Yes, the snorkel closes and won't flood it.
It only goes "About 5 feet for brief durations" "it needs speed in order to dive, which means the engine needs to be running, and the engine needs fresh air to breathe. The moment you dive too deep, the engine's air supply is cut off and the engine immediately loses power; therefore, it pops back to the surface."

 

http://www.deepflight.com/