Bond Upgrade: The $1.7m DeepFlight Dragon Underwater Quadcopter
It even has a “beach landing” mode.
The Spy Who Loved Me shocked the Bond franchise out of its Disco Era torpor with nothing more than a Lotus Esprit. Well, an amphibious Lotus Esprit. But still. Now, this vaunted moment in 007 lore, which you can relive above, is looking very, very quaint.
Meet the DeepFlight Dragon, a $1.7 million personal submarine that made its global debut at last month’s Monaco Yacht Show. It carries two people. It can do 6 knots. It has positive buoyancy, meaning it floats. And while we know of no defense contractors retrofitting a Dragon with torpedo bays, it’s easy to imagine an evil billionaire going that route.
Powered by six brushless DC motors—or thrusters, in this application—drawing power from a 15 kilowatt-hour lithium-iron phosphate battery pack, the bobbing bauble has a number of clever features: a crawl mode for “rugged beach launching”; an integrated GoPro HD video recording system; and cabin monitoring of your O2 quality. The Dragon is good for a 400-foot dive, so don’t worry, James; the Mariana Trench is still yours.
One fellow secured a ride in a Dragon available for hire at the exclusive Laucala Island resort in Fiji. If you can begrudge him his good fortune, and his producers’ love of cut-rate Italo house music, take a look.
