James Bond-style submarine resembles a UFO

• Sub has expansive ‘bubble-like’ window giving amazing views for paying guests
• READ MORE: Luxury super sub can hold 20 people underwater for four weeks

James Bond memorably escaped beneath the waves aboard his adapted Lotus Esprit in the 1977 film ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’.

But an incredible new submersible shaped like a UFO looks even outside the capabilities of MI6’s Q branch.

The Triton 660 AVA has an expansive transparent ‘bubble’-like’ window that makes passengers feel at one with the ocean’s depths.

While diving up to 656 feet (200 metres) below the water’s surface, guests can enjoy dinner, share a bottle of champagne or even get married.

However, with an eye-watering purchase price of $6.3 million (£5 million), the 660 AVA doesn’t come cheap.

Triton says the sub can be quickly reconfigured between dives, and can offer a variety of dive activities, including dining or cocktail dives, spa treatments, or even subsea gaming experiences

The Triton 660/9 AVA has been launched as the ultimate vessel for deep sea sightseeing according to maker Triton

Triton 660/9 AVA: Key specs 

Maximum depth: 656 feet/200 metres

Crew: 1 pilot

Passengers: 8 adults or 6 adults & 4 children

Speed: 3 knots (3.4mph)

Length: 9 feet

Width: 14.8 feet

The sub has been created by Florida-based firm Triton, perhaps best known for making the DSV Limiting Factor, a deep sea submarine that collided with the wreck of RMS Titanic in 2019.

The company says on its website that its new 660 AVA provides ‘entertainment-focused underwater experiences’.

The sub can be quickly reconfigured between dives and can offer a variety of dive activities, including dining or cocktail dives, spa treatments, subsea gaming experiences or even weddings.

It describes the sub as ‘the world’s most intimate place to tie the knot’.

‘Operators can take advantage of this space to provide never-before-possible experiences that will surprise and delight discerning guests, even when not sailing near a prime dive site,’ it says.

‘These singular, expansive spaces afford you considerable flexibility to curate experiences hitherto unimaginable in a submersible, from cocktails and casinos to weddings and private dining.’

The intimate space comes with comfortable leather seating and even in-built mood lighting and a surround-sound audio system, so guests can enjoy music to match the deep sea.

According to Triton, the sub’s expansive window uses a patent-pending mix of acrylics, allowing strong but ‘transparent hulls in new and irregular geometries’

It has been specifically designed for the cruise and hospitality sectors, with the ability to dive 656 feet (200 metres) below the surface

The craft has echoes of James Bond’s sea-diving Lotus Esprit in The Spy Who Loved Me, above, also known as Wet Nellie (pictured)

READ MORE Super sub can hold 20 underwater for four weeks

According to Triton, the sub’s expansive window uses a patent-pending mix of acrylics, allowing strong but ‘transparent hulls in new and irregular geometries’.

‘A Triton AVA submersible typically offers two to three times the usable volume of traditional spherical hulls – space that can be used to create amazing experiences,’ the firm adds.

Triton 660 AVA also comes with a new and improved controller to operate the sub, called the Hammerhead.

Working in tandem with the cockpit, the Hammerhead allows the submersible to be controlled wirelessly from any seat inside the cabin.

So the pilot could move around the submersible while still operating it, or may even hand control of the submersible to a guest.

If this sounds too similar to the adapted PlayStation controller used to navigate the doomed Titan last June, everything about Triton’s new vehicle has been apparently designed with safety in mind.

A spokesperson said each 660 AVA submersible comprises of thousands of constituent components, each of which is reviewed and tested to ensure it complies with requirements for certification by a third party.

Florida-based Triton say their craft has been specifically designed for the cruise and hospitality sectors

The Triton DSV Limiting Factor from Florida-based company Triton Submarines, which collided with the starboard hull breach of the Titanic wreck

The privately-owned submersible Titan, created and operated by another US firm called OceanGate, suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ on the way to visit the wreck of RMS Titanic.

The five men on board died instantly, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who had described a deep sea trip aboard Titan as ‘safer than crossing the street’.

Titanic director James Cameron, who’s renowned for his own deep-sea exploration missions, has said Titan had ‘three potential failure points’ and indicated that its ‘Achilles heel’ was the carbon fiber hull.

A luxury yacht that’s perfect for high-flyers! Incredible 242ft yacht uses a foil system to ‘fly’ across the water – but it will set you back £70 MILLION 

A luxury 242ft-long yacht has not only been designed to take you on the high seas but also to ‘fly’ above the water – as long as you have a spare £70 million.

The impressive design concept called the Plectrum was released by the Rome-based Lazzarini Design Studio.

Built out of dry carbon fibres that make it extra light, it uses a foil system so it can rise above the waves and glide along the water at up to 75 knots (86mph).

Italian creators at the Lazzarini Design Studio released images of their latest concept yacht called the Plectrum (pictured)

At the moment, the yacht remains a concept boat with no set date to arrive on to the market.

Read more

Read more