• floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    The pieces shown in these photos are the metal parts. The bit that was most likely to break up was the cylindrical carbon fibre hull, and there are no pieces of that in evidence here. The acrylic window is also missing from the front piece.

      • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush says the company had been evaluating the potential of using a carbon fiber composite hull since 2010, primarily because it permits creation of a pressure vessel that is naturally buoyant and, therefore, would enable OceanGate to forgo the use — and the significant expense — of syntactic foam on its exterior. So, for Cyclops 2 OceanGate decided to avoid the metallic hull altogether and began a search for a manufacturer that could help it develop a composite hull.

        Once again the motive for the choice of carbon fibre seems to have been its relative cheapness.