A 20-year passion for all things submersible led Michael Stafford to this: A flash of fiberglass, carbon and Kevlar displayed Wednesday in an airy exhibit hall at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

The sleek, "winged" submarine is the direct descendant of a prototype built in Sacramento by a company run by Stafford, his late brother and their business partner Jim Mayfield.

The newest version, dubbed the Deep Flight Super Falcon, might become popular as a survey vessel. Or it might become an underwater toy for the very rich, able to afford its $1.5 million price tag.

Either way, Stafford and Mayfield felt compelled to brave early-morning commute traffic from Placerville to San Francisco on Wednesday to get a first glimpse of a submersible they'd seen only in drawings.

"It's a thing of beauty – a beautiful piece of art and a functional piece of equipment," Stafford said after the cover was pulled back from the 22-foot-long, two-passenger vessel.

The Super Falcon, which will be on exhibit at the museum through Sunday, "truly can do things no other submersible can do," said Maria Brown, superintendent of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.

It's faster, more maneuverable and provides a wider view than many undersea vessels, she said.

For those who have been lucky enough to travel beneath the waves, Brown said at a Wednesday morning press conference, "it's awe-inspiring. It's motivating." Breathtaking views of giant sponges, of swarms of krill "so dense you can barely see through the water" demonstrate why it is so important to preserve the oceans, she said.

To share those undersea vistas, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has teamed up with Hawkes Ocean Technologies, which built the new submersible, to create a "VIP in the Sea" program.

NOAA, which runs the Farallones and other marine sanctuaries, will provide logistical support and cruise coordination, and Hawkes will provide the vessel, offering rides to opinion makers.

"We would like to take everyone on the planet down and fly them into deep blue space, but we can't," said Graham Hawkes, the submersible's creator. So "we really want to take poets and artists down, and lawmakers."

At some point, Mayfield and Stafford hope to go aboard, too.

"We'll beg for a lift," Mayfield said.

The Stafford twins and Mayfield had been part of that community since the late 1980s, creating an underwater breathing system called Snuba, an underwater helmet called the Sea Trek, and a range of tourist submersibles. Their companies, Snuba International and Sub Sea Systems, have been based at different times in Placerville and Sacramento, but now call Diamond Springs home.

Hawkes' vision for submersibles with winglike fins "was a very personal project for my twin brother," Patrick Stafford, until he died of cancer in 2002, Stafford said. Patrick Stafford invested $100,000 in the concept, and persuaded others to invest more, not really expecting much return.

"My brother was a dreamer," Stafford said. "When my brother got sick I kind of filled in his place, and assumed that role as well as I could … just to try to complete his dream."

Along with Patrick Stafford's personal investment, the Sub Sea Systems company also helped feed the dream, building portions of an earlier Hawkes underwater flier prototype, called the Aviator. The Sacramento investors eventually parted ways amicably with Hawkes, Stafford said.

Hawkes Ocean Technologies, based in Point Richmond, has gone on to build several generations of small submersibles that maneuver a little bit like a plane, instead of simply sinking down or floating back up like some round submersibles.

So far, only two Super Falcons have been built. Just one has been sold – to venture capitalist Tom Perkins, who bought it as an accessory for his luxury yacht.

For research, the submersible would be well suited for basic characterization work, giving broader views of the sea floor and species, said Brown, who is a conservation biologist.

Its recreation uses are likely to benefit science, too, said Mayfield. It will still be exploration, he said, even if the earliest voyages are made by the rich or the famous.

For those who are neither, the Super Falcon will be on view through Sunday at the Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

Call The Bee's Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, (916) 321-1086.