Dr Phil Nuytten in His One-Person Submersible
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NUYTCO Sub Sea Pioneer ABOVE: The Exosuit in action BELOW: Diagram of the “underwater sports car” Phil Nuytten RIGHT: Dr Phil Nuytten in his one-person submersible NUYTCO Text by Gunild & Peter Symes Photos by Gunild Symes and Nuytco Research “If you think about it, the space actually appears like a smooth between the highest moun- ball with a few stains on it from tain peak which is seven miles outer space. So why build these high and our lowest point in the suits? Why go so deep? Well, if ocean which is about seven we are not going to go there, miles deep… that’s just 14 miles why build the suits? There’s no of space in which all life, our point. The reason why we make lives, can exist. Our naked bod- these suits is to eventually be ies cannot survive outside this able to go to the places we small zone on the planet, which cannot reach today. NUYTCO 69 X-RAY MAG : 9 : 2005 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED profile Dr Phil Nuytten LEFT: The two-per- son submersible, Dual DeepWorker NewtSub, allows for a pilot and an observer RIGHT: Nuytco’s Exosuit NUYTCO was designed to protect the diver from pressure Close-up of the one- and hold internal pres- person DeepWorker sure much like the used by National exoskeleton of a Geographic crab INSET: The three- person submers- ible, Aquarius, is NUYTCO lowered into the sea NUYTCO ABOVE: Deep Rover in action with diver “Some say we should just send robots and sub- ians of our oceans. rockets for NASA from the sea marine robots to these extreme depths. But if we floor. are not eventually going there ourselves, why both- When rays meet newts Then there were Deep Rover, er at all? The point is that we are going to go there X-RAY MAG visited Phil at Deep Flyer, Aquarius, Sea Otter eventually, like we are going to go to the moon or his workshop in Vancouver and the revolutionary Exosuit, to Mars. We are eventually going to be there, and and received a tour of the which stood in the front office these suits and technologies are going to go with facility and his inventions by welcoming us to the fantas- us and help us get there.” the man himself. Famous tic world of all things Nuytten. So says Dr Phil Nuytten, inventor of sub sea sub- rigs that have done incred- Exosuit, introduced by Nuytco mersibles and the NewtSuit, a deep-sea hard suit ible things are lying around NUYTCO in 2000, is a radical concept in Close- employing break through technology that allow the place like lounge liz- lightweight atmospheric dive up detail scientists to walk the bottom of the ocean in one- ards…. rigs such as the micro-submersible Deep suits. The team is now investigating whether it of the arm bar atmosphere with a freedom and range of Worker, the revolutionary deep-diving system that can serve as submarine escape device for the of the Exosuit. movement unsurpassed by other devices. With transports scientists from National Geographic Canadian Department of National Defence. Reduced volume is accomplished by over 40 years devoted to sub sea technology, Phil programs and deep sea explorer, Dr Sylvia Earle, What was the most interesting part of the con- the cut-outs in each is fulfilling his goal to provide scientific, military, for her Sustainable Seas programs, to the bottom versation with Phil was what he said about the segment technical and sport divers unlimited access to con- of the sea to investigate environmental impact in fragility of the human body, which can only exist in tinental shelf depths without decompression haz- the deep ocean. The unit has been affectionately the small slice of the biosphere, and how we need ards. In this way, he hopes humanity can explore, tagged the “underwater sports car” and was used all these prosthesis, such as airplanes and under- investigate and ultimately become better guard- in a contract to recover the Space Shuttle booster ground tunnels, to exist in other areas. GUNILD PAK SYMES 70 X-RAY MAG : 9 : 2005 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED profile Dr Phil Nuytten The human being is like a jellyfish with sticks in it. —Dr Phil Nuytten Early version of a one-atmosphere armored diving suit The second International Inc., which has become most interest- one of the largest underwater con- ing point was tractors in the world doing work how Phil would in the fields of marine like to make con- struction, off- NUYTCO these suits shore production, and economically even work with available to NASA in outer private individuals for space! Phil has around US$25,000.00— logged hun- the price of a nice dreds of hours car. About our on experi- bodies, Phil mental said, “The deep human diving being and is test- like a jel- lyfish with sticks in it.” It needs extreme protection in extreme environ- ments. ing of Dr Phil decom- A native Canadian, born and pression G.P. SYMES raised in Vancouver, Phil was just 12-13 years tables. He old when he began diving. He opened the is regarded ABOVE: Nuytten dis- first diving shop in western Canada when he as a pioneer of the cusses specs of the was 15, where he would work after school. modern commercial Deep Rover There were so few divers back then, he said. diving industry and a But by the time he was 16, he was making driving force behind LEFT TO RIGHT: Dr Nuytten with a more money than his teachers. revolutionary sub sea NewtSuit prototype; Phil was a commercial diver for many technology. looking under the years and co-founded Oceaneering Nowadays, Phil is hood of his submers- ible; the latest work in Nuytten creates totem woodcarvings in the progress submersible G.P. SYMES G.P. SYMES Northwest Coastal Native American tradition G.P. SYMES G.P. SYMES 71 X-RAY MAG : 9 : 2005 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED profile Dr Phil Nuytten NUYTCO ABOVE: The latest version of the NewtSub, the Dual Deepworker for two LEFT: A family of deep-sea micro-submersibles NUYTCO BELOW: Phil discusses the new prototype with X-RAY editor-in-chief Peter Symes leading the world in the development of sub sea technology. He is the genius behind Nuytco Research Ltd. based in Vancouver, an entity that has brought the world deep-sea submersibles and ground breaking atmospher- ic diving suits. Can-Dive has reduced quite a bit now since its glory days of being the major contractor in North America, said Phil. It is now just a small part of the Nuytten Empire, which now focuses mainly on submarines and the suits, which are now in their sixth or seventh generation, and the arms of the suits, which are in their third or fourth version. Right now, the benefit NUYTCO of reduced volume in the NewSuit is accom- The two-person Dual DeepWorker NewtSub submersible is lowered into the sea plished by the cut outs in each segment. Phil said that they are currently working on a new can withstand any amount of compression. Ideally, a museum of diving history in Canada with all the arm that has no moving parts but works in a he said, one should use an underwater suit out of diving artefacts he has collected over the years. package of liquid, so as the arm moves, the glass and titanium, or what Phil said was “unobtain- “We have some two or three storage rooms filled liquid revolves around itself. ium” because it is not yet available—a combination, up to the ceiling with this stuff,” he said. Phil is an Phil said that, ultimately, glass is the best or composite, of glass and titanium. avid dive historian and has some unique insights material to use for deep-sea inventions into the development of dive technology. Phil said, because it can sustain under high compres- A man of many hats “Jacques Cousteau is often credited as the sole sion as long it has equal pressure all around In the meantime, Phil continues to work on several inventor of the ‘Aqua-lung’, although he himself it. If it is held together by another substance it G.P. SYMES projects at the same time. He is planning to open never made such a claim. Cousteau was certainly 72 X-RAY MAG : 9 : 2005 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY EDUCATION PROFILES PORTFOLIO CLASSIFIED profile Dr Phil Nuytten LEFT: Dr Phil Nuytten in his office decked out with posters from Hollywood movies he and his team at Nuytco have been involved with over the years RIGHT & INSET: Prototypes of the helmets Nuytco designed for various Hollywood films of which some posters are shown below G.P. SYMES NUYTCO PETER SYMES the driving force behind the original Robocop or The Rocket Man. development, but the actual mechani- cal invention was done by a French Deep in Hollywood engineer named Emile Gagnan ( pro- Which brings us to the subject of nounced ‘Gan-yon’). Gagnan immi- movies. Phil and Nuytco have been grated to Canada in the mid-1940’s involved in over 114 movies includ- and all the early Aqua-lungs that were ing Titanic, The Abyss and Sphere sold in the US came from Montreal, with Samuel L. Jackson. Phil’s office is Canada, or from the parent company plastered with the posters made for in France.” all the films for which his work was con- Indeed, taking a look around Phil’s tracted.