- The Titan's experimental design included a carbon-fiber hull.
- According to a 2017 report, the initial hull design was turned around in just six weeks.
The company that built the Titan's first innovative carbon-fiber hull design was given just six weeks to come up with it, according to an industry report.
The design process for the experimental project was described in an in-depth 2017 article in trade magazine Composites World.
According to the outlet, OceanGate contracted Sancramento-based Spencer Composites to come up with the hull for the Cyclops 2 — the vehicle design that would become the Titan — under strict specifications.
Spencer Composites CEO, Brian Spencer, described the conversation with OceanGate to the magazine: "They basically said, 'This is the pressure we have to meet, this is the factor of safety, this is the basic envelope. Go design and build it.'"
And it had to be done within six weeks, the outlet reported.
Spencer Composites did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, sent outside of working hours.
There is renewed focus on the construction of the Titan since the disappearance of the submersible on Sunday. Five people, including OceanGate's CEO Stockton Rush, were on board and are now believed to be lost.
The US Coast Guard said on Thursday that debris found at the scene was "consistent with catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber."
Much still remains unknown about the circumstances of the disaster, including what could have caused the implosion of the vessel.
But a stand-out feature of the Titan is its combination carbon fiber and titanium construction, a departure from the standard practice of fully titanium submersibles.
Commenting on the decision in 2017, Rush told TechCrunch that "everyone said you couldn't build with this with carbon fiber," adding that he had done so anyway, with the choice of using a more buoyant material significantly reducing costs associated with ballast.
Rush also said in a 2021 interview that he had "broken some rules" with the choice of carbon fiber.
"I think I've broken them with logic and good engineering behind me," he told Spanish YouTuber alanxelmundo. "Carbon fiber and titanium? There's a rule you don't do that. Well, I did," he said.
At the time of the Composites World article, the contracted hull cylinder had been produced but not incorporated into a vessel.
OceanGate later rebuilt the vehicle in 2020, when the hull was found to be showing signs of "cyclic fatigue," meaning it would not be safe at 13,000 feet, GeekWire reported.
It's unclear if there were any changes to the hull design at that stage.
According to a now-archived list of Titan's latest specifications, some remain unchanged from those reportedly given to Spencer Composites. The overall vehicle's planned dimensions, in 2017, of 22 ft x 9.2 ft x 8.3 ft also fit with the Titan's specs.
However, the most recent specifications for the Titan showed that it ended up with a smaller payload — 1,510 lbs — compared to the more than 2,000 lbs first planned.
According to Composites World, the process of creating the first carbon fiber hull was exacting. It had to be 5 inches thick, and was cured in an oven at 278 degrees Fahrenheit (137 Celsius) for seven days.
The Titan was tested unmanned to a depth of 13,000 feet, according to a 2019 Smithsonian magazine article, before Rush himself climbed aboard to test it at progressively greater depths.