Reply to Tourist submersible missing on visit to Titanic

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My dad was a Cold War submariner.  He the knew the Navy officer who took the Trieste down to the deepest part of the Pacific at 37,779 feet.  The capability to rescue something like this from that depth(Titantic)does not exist.  Very sad.[/quote]

Wow, that’s amazing. I learned about the Trieste in an engineering course - it was cited as an example of overdesign for safety - apparently they designed the hull with a larger than normal safety margin. Just amazing that they accomplished that dive so long ago. Thanks for sharing. [/quote]

The submersible in this case was *supposed* to have a safety margin of 2.5, meaning it was stronger than necessary by a factor of 2.5.  It made many past trips, including to the Titanic.

HOWEVER:

- when the carbon fiber hull arrived from the specialized manufacturing contractor, the owner expected it to be about 7” thick.  Instead it was just 5” thick. Also,

- since before WW 1, subs have been made of steel, and sub engineers understand it’s underwater properties well, based on a century of experience.  But this sub was made of carbon fiber (essentially reinforced plastic, or rather, really strong fiberglass), and titanium / aluminum alloy.

They were working somewhat in the dark here.  Engineers can make “predictions,” but sometimes the real world doesn’t match up.[/quote]

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