Aluminaut

Aluminaut was a crewed deep-ocean research submersible completed in 1964 and billed as the first submarine with an aluminium hull. Reynolds Metals Company, which wanted to show what aluminium could do, commissioned it as an experiment and had the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics build it at Groton, Connecticut. Weighing about 80 tons and roughly 15.5 metres long, it carried a small crew and several scientists, with four view ports, sonar, manipulators and a rated maximum depth of about 5,200 metres. Operated from Miami by Reynolds Submarine Services until 1970, it worked for the United States Navy and others, joined the 1966 search for the hydrogen bomb lost off Palomares, Spain, and in 1969 helped recover the lost submersible Alvin. After retirement it was donated to the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond, where it is displayed.