>>What is your view on the liability of Spencer Composites? Yikes! (good question) I read elsewhere that they were given six weeks to design and build the cy

>>What is your view on the liability of Spencer Composites? Yikes! (good question) I read elsewhere that they were given six weeks to design and build the cylindrical hull. And that he OceanGate CEO had sourced a bunch of out-of-date prepreg carbon fiber from Boeing, getting a great deal, and said that 'those aerospace guys may need those dates but we don't'. The right answer to both of those is: "Those ideas are too insane or too stupid to work with us. Either let us help you with a better idea, or come back when you have one". Six weeks is an insanely short time to even make a few test coupons and a single full-thickness panel and maybe a 50% scale short tube section to test things like curing rates, production methods, compaction/void rates, actual yielded properties, and so forth, plus, whether the epoxy in that out-of-date material was even still any good. At least if you want to have a clue of what you are doing. Six months is an insanely short time to do development on the titanium endcaps, the surface on the composite tube to which they will mate, the adhesive, the process, etc. The few snippets of video I saw and the CompositesWorld article [0] indicate that they likely did a decent job with the resources they had. But, damn, there was a LOT missing. They said that they worked with NASA, but listening to Sarah Cox, the director of composites at NASA[1], she talks at length about the need for extensive testing at every stage from test coupons (small panels), sub-assemblies, full parts, and in and after operation. Just the video of the bonding process gave me the creeps. It would be fine for something like an art show piece, or maybe even on a test mule automobile. But there was nothing but a person using a manual straight-edge Bondo applicator (flexible plastic rectangle) trying to spread an even thickness. There was zero protection from any warehouse/shop debris, no evidence that pressure would be applied after the mating, and no vacuum to eliminate entrapped air. I guarantee there were voids, air pockets, unbonded sections under that titanium ring. The key thing is that undersea does not require less caution than space flight, it requires MORE, a lot more, because the pressures are insane. As for Spencer Composites' liability, I'm no lawyer, but I'd be worried even if they made the Oceangate CEO sign in blood that the craft was experimental, not their design, only a best effort, and definitely not fit for the intended purpose. The only thing that might save them is that there were a few dozen dives on the hull before it imploded, so they could say "it worked when we gave it to them, how they abused it, maintained it, monitored it, etc. is not in our control, so not our problem.". But those sorts of issues are for the lawyers, judges, and juries to sort out. I expect they'll all have more fun than they wanted. [0] https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/composite-submersibles-under-pressure-in-deep-deep-waters https://www.compositesworld.com/articles/composite-submersib... [1] https://www.compositesworld.com/podcast/episode/episode-40-sarah-cox-nasa https://www.compositesworld.com/podcast/episode/episode-40-s...