Hi Mike,
It looks like Marstrom is doing everything he can to get the carbon mast on the Tornado. Marstrom brought the point up in the first place. Marstrom is the only manufacturer of a carbon mast for the Tornado. Marstrom's web site talks about the problems with the aluminum mast. Marstrom is initially pricing the carbon Tornado mast well below a normal price based on mast size. "He is working the problem".
My comment on mast section: Mast section or any beam/tube section is described by its outer dimensions. In the case of the mast we would be talking about the major axis length and the minor axis length. When I say same mast section, I am saying same mast outside shape. If we want to talk about mast stiffness, we talk in terms of moment of inertia which brings wall thickness into the discussion.
Carbon fiber is ten times as stiff as aluminum. Therefore if we build a carbon mast and we want it to have the same mast bend stiffness/softness as an aluminum mast, we will have to go down in mast section, shorter major axis and shorter minor axis. Reducing wall thickness to compensate for a 10 times stiffer material is not an option here. The resulting very thin wall thickness would cripple/buckle under normal mast loads. A smaller mast section in carbon with a thicker wall thickness would solve the strength/stiffness trade off study for the Tornado class. The only problem is that the Carbon mast will make obsolete hundreds of aluminum Tornado masts.
Bill