As with all internet forums, there has been quite the range of comments, from clearly knowledgeable to the other extreme. I have been in composites research and technology my whole career, since 1980, with both academic and industrial activity. The recurring theme that I find bothersome is the idea that not only does the composites community not know what it is doing, it does not know that it does not know, or is reckless.
So what about the critics in this forum? It is easy to dismiss those who are comfortable to criticize without having the background. In my experience the more knowledgeable you are, the slower you are to offer criticism. More difficult is the question of how to react to amicus. He is clearly a knowledgeable person, an expert in the field, who has strong convictions, which he has offered up previously through the correct channels and yet been rebuffed. Is he right? Is there incompetence in those who have dealt with him? Conspiracy? Management pressure? Or is it that reasonable people have carefully evaluated what he has said and decided that his concerns are too strong? That the risk is not as high as he claims.
Although I claim to be a composites expert, or perhaps because I am, it would take me weeks of work to come up to sufficient speed to offer judgement on amicus’s position. But I know, and have worked with a number of the players mentioned in his manuscript. I know that, in a public forum, even if present, many of those who disagree with amicus have their hands tied – they cannot discuss all the available evidence openly. That is a very unsatisfactory position for readers, but it is the reality of our current system. Generally there is a strong element of truth in what this type of public critic says, and it is taken very seriously behind closed doors. Reviewers work very hard to evaluate the concerns and determine what to do. Typically, but not always, those going public are partially right, because no complex engineering problem is clear-cut, but the balance is off. But the fact that in a public forum we are getting only half the story is very clear.