Indeed, and a whole lot less expensive for all concerned than his space plane, but probably just as appealing to many people.
Just as appealing, and just as much a death trap IMO.
I guess I am in a small minority here, but the scaled up versions of the Rutan designs (space ship one etc) look pretty bad to me if you start to look at all the systems.
And I am guessing that this underwater ship, while not being a Rutan creation, will probably have similar alarming traits.