Submersible Titanic Tourist craft goes missing

Punish the innocent spouse and/or any remaining descendants for the decision of a dead man?

 

Typically hucksters don’t put themselves at risk, so I would guess the latter.

 

They can probably get a judgment and get in line with other creditors when the company dissolves. I'm sure they own stuff that can be liquidated.

 

I mean, he was on the sub, so I would think its more of the second & hubris basically.

 

Oopsies…

Titan sub CEO dismissed safety warnings as 'baseless cries', emails show Titan sub CEO dismissed safety warnings as 'baseless cries', emails show

 

Carbon-fiber composites produced using aerospace-grade epoxy resin and curing agents have a higher specific strength than steel or titanium. The problem is not the strength of the material. I suspect the problem was that this guy did not want to do safety inspections on his vessel. Every vessel, whether composite or metal, needs periodic nondestructive testing.

Aircraft manufacturers are already experimenting with composite fuselages and other parts. According to one article on composite aircraft, “Composites would yield better fatigue and corrosion resistance and higher strength-to-weight ratios, provide for a more integrated structure, and increase the useful life and residual value of each aircraft.”

My concern with composites for things like aircraft and bridges is that composite failure is catastrophic. They don’t bend or flex much before breaking, as would be the case with steel. They take the stress and then they crack.

 

If we're learned anything it's that deep diving is best done in a vessel that flexes (steal and Titanium do that) a skyscraper needs to bend and flex in the wind so it doesn't crack and break, but that is still not compressing and decompressing. Underwater vessels need to compress and decompress too.

 

Probably a stupid question but I am curious as to how carbon fiber can handle the expansion and contraction that fuselages undergo during flight.

 

Yes. The passengers may have heard some structural noises just before the event, but it happens so fast your brain doesn't have enough time to process what's going on. I think it is probable they lost control and knew the craft was going down in which case you probably have an idea that it's not going to end well. This is when the passengers choked the CEO with the game controller. Just a guess on the last two sentences!

 

Would you feel differently taking all his money if he hadn't died on the craft? If so, is that not punishing his family in the same way?

 

Adding the caveat that I'm not a scientist or an engineer so my opinion is strictly speculation, the pressure differential is apparently much greater in a submersible descending to an extreme depth than with an aircraft flying at altitude and there also may be a difference on how a carbon fiber hull reacts when the higher pressure is internal as in the case of aircraft or spacecraft than when the higher pressure is external.

 

Not very well for high speed flight. The SR71 required a titanium fuselage to handle the friction of high speed travel. There is a limit but airliners can and do use CF materials. Boeing and Airbus use them.

 

Understand the submersible undergoes much greater pressures but good point about the difference in internal vs external. I believe it's been posted but part of the safety concern was the lack of ability or unwillingness to inspect the vessel for micro fractures after each dive.

Side note. I read where the Concorde fuselage expanded as much as 7 inches in length due to heat, not cabin or air pressure.

 

Exactly!!!!

 

Flexing and compressing are not the same thing.

 

It's interesting that our Navy subs can't do that anymore... great safety feature. The can never get past buoyancy negative. The can only get to slightly less that neutral so that if they ever lose power they can and will very slowly rise to the surface of the ocean. The have to move forward to get negative buoyancy.

 

It's a good question and one I could go either way on. If you tax the guy while still alive, at least he can earn a living going forward and support his family. In the existing case, though, any family members not only lose their inheritance; they lose the family members. At any rate, you make a good point. I'm just less inclined to add salt to the wound by taking what's left.

 

They're both mechanical stresses. Regardless of material selection, engineers have to account for both during flight. There's also torsional and shear stresses. Bending is also a mechanical stress but it's made up of both flexural and compressive stresses!

 

Here's some dribble about the SR71's fuel tanks that leaked on the tarmac by design.

Here’s why the SR-71 Blackbird airframe was designed to leak fuel - The Aviation Geek Club

 

Speaking for self, yes. He died along with his passengers. I would say that’s textbook accountability. To use an old expression, he paid the debt that cancels all others.