31. Mistake Dooms a Pioneering Jet Liner
When designing the de Havilland Comet’s windows, the company opted for large, square windows. The decision was driven by aesthetics: square windows looked better than the traditional round “porthole” style windows. Unfortunately for dozens of Comet passengers who died in a series of crashes, designers back then did not understand metal fatigue. Stresses piled up at the corners of the Comet’s square windows, causing catastrophic fuselage breaches mid-flight, resulting in fatal crashes.
Since the Comets often broke apart at high altitudes and above water, it took time to figure out the problem. Once the culprit was identified, the entire Comet fleet was pulled out of service. De Havilland never recovered: while the Comet was being redesigned with round windows and thicker fuselages, the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 hit the market, and became hits with airliners.
