Yes it's so true what your saying about low volume
custom products being very expensive. Of course I don't know what
they payed for the design and if any patents, international or other wize came
with it. Harbor Branch is claiming a patent of some sort on a ring
thruster. I finally found some basic data about there
thruster.
http://www.hboi.edu/eng/rov_comp.html
Also corporations love to spend money on R&D and with allot
of the different parts on this thruster being injection molded that can
run you $30,000 to $50,000 per part for the T1 Steel molds not to mention the
cost of all the tech guys designing and testing the critter at $30 to $80 an
hour.
How about I just make my sub and ring thrusters
out of snow. I've got plenty of it to spare at the moment. :)' Ice burgs
flood right.
So if I understand you correctly, if the PSUBers of
the world start hording millions of ring thrusters we can get a better
price.