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Richard Branson Isn't the Only Billionaire Playing with Submarines

April 6, 2011 at 10:07 AM | by | Comments (0)

Yesterday, when billionaire Richard Branson announced the expansion of his Virgin Oceanic program to deep-sea exploration, he joined a very exclusive club. Okay, sure; he's already a part of the private island owners' club, the billionaires with space travel aspirations' club, and even the private club owners' club. Now, however, he can finally join the ranks of submarine owners of the world.

Technically Branson got his first sub last year, with the launch of the Necker Nymph, a 3-person tourist sub that accompanies his catamaran yacht-for-charter, the Necker Belle. Read more on it here, but do note its similarities to an airplane, rather an a conventional submarine. Branson's new sub will instead be a 1-seater with capability to reach 37,000 feet. That's crazy, and Branson is even crazier; he intends to pilot the second of five planned deep dives, and stands as the back-up pilot on the first, Marianas Trench dive.

Heaven forbid something happens to Richard, but we're now wondering what other billionaires count submarines among their toys?

· Roman Abramovich: The Russian oligarch famously owns several submarines, from a two-person recreational sub which may or may not still be housed onboard his yacht Pelorus, to a getaway sub on his newer boat, Eclipse.

· Paul Allen: Microsoft's co-founder is extremely secretive about his sub(s). Nonetheless, there are some known details about one, like the fact that it's yellow, 40-foot-long with a $12 million sticker price, space for 10 passengers and "enough extras to remain submerged for a week." You'll find it (or rather, only Allen will find it) inside his 416-foot yacht Octopus.

· Larry Ellison/David Geffen: Billionaire secrecy continues as we can only say that Ellison—the CEO of Oracle—had "space for a submarine" built into his 452-foot-long yacht Rising Sun, which also boats a large indoor swimming pool. Ellison recently sold the yacht to David Geffen, who may or may not now also be in possession of a sub.

· Unnamed Emiratis: Of course some dudes in the United Arab Emirates have personal subs. Because of non-disclosure agreements in the world of sub-building, however, little to nothing is known about who actually owns them and how big and fancy they are, although since Dubai loves only superlatives, that they're likely very fancy.

[Photo: Virgin Oceanic]

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