Branson sub to explore ocean depths

Richard Branson says he plans to travel to the deepest parts of the world’s oceans in a single-person submarine.

The billionaire adventurer announced that he and fellow explorer Chris Welch plan to make five dives over the next two years.

They will take turns travelling to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, the Atlantic’s Puerto Rico Trench and South Sandwich Trench, Diamantina Trench in the Indian Ocean and the Molloy Deep in the Arctic Ocean.

Branson will take the first dive later this year to the Mariana Trench, which at 36,000ft is deeper than Mount Everest is high.

Speaking at a launch in Newport Beach, California, he showed off the sub, a blue-and-white plane-like craft with stubby wings and a cockpit that will be able to travel for miles over the ocean floor.

The founder of Virgin Airlines plans to make a larger sub that can hold more people and offer trips to tourists – for a sizeable fee.