If you are out and about this weekend and you spot something that looks like a cross between a speed boat, a fighter jet, and the Batmobile, you probably aren't dreaming.
What you may have seen is the Hyper-Sub, a high speed, long range motor boat that is also a diesel electric submarine. The vehicle is in the Jacksonville area this weekend.
It looks like something out of a spy novel, and it actually appeared on the cover of adventure writer Clive Cussler's 2010 novel Crescent Dawn. The book's plotline also features the sub.
Hyper-Sub inventor,and CEO of Marion Hyper-Submersibles Powerboat Design LLC Reynolds Marion tells First Coast Connect that he has been thinking about undersea travel since he was a child.
"I started thinking about this when I was 11-years-old," he said, adding that as he got older he began to think seriously about developing a better, faster, safer, and cheaper way to get underwater.
"It will revolutionize man's access to the sub-sea environment," he said of the vehicle, which is still a prototype.
Marion says that the vehicle has a number of applications, from recreational boating to marine research and military uses.
The $9.5 million price tag seems like a lot, but Marion says that price is in line with the cost of other small submarines, and would be more cost efficient than renting a sub for research.
The idea hasn't been without critics. Marion says that when he first introduced the idea engineers told him it couldn't be done.
"You just need to use a little bit of problem solving and common sense," he said.
Marion hopes to display the Hyper-Sub here in Jacksonville this weekend, but has not found a location yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzYISVLvlQU
You can get more information online at HyperSubNow.com.
