>>211910444Mainly transport costs though. Titanium and steel are heavy as fuck and would require more expensive equipment to transport and lift. The weird thing is, he could have saved on engineering costs had he gone with titanium or steel. These are known materials with a plethora of information readily available meaning you're not required to run scale trials at all. You could cut back on some engineering staff, and design work would be easier.
The most fascinating thing about the whole situation is that I never once heard them say how many dives they thought they could get out of that hull, which is fucking insane. Even if you went with steel or titanium you would likely have a projected lifespan for a hull just based on the work hardening that would occurr from the hull being compressed.
Also ironic that transport costs ended up fucking them anyways since they left the titan in Canada for the winter.