The de Havilland Comet was the Neanderthal Icarus of jetliners. “Neanderthal” in that it came first, but rooted no family trees. “Icarus” because it flew too high and failed.
The Comet was the first jetliner. It first flew in 1949 and carried paying passengers in 1952. It looks modern enough (all-metal body, swept wings, pressurized cabin) but for the engines and the windows. It has 4 (instead of 2), small (instead of large) jets mounted inside the wings (instead of podded) and rectangular (instead of rounded) windows.
Those windows were the Achilles Heel of the wax of its Icaru-- Wait. Too many metaphors. More simply: you’ve never head of the Comet because it windows were critically flawed. Pressurization pushed each window out with a ton of pressure (16.6 inches wide * 14 inches high * 8.25 psi). The window’s glass held, but passed the weight to the metal frame unevenly: the square shape pushed much more at the corners. Like bending a paper clip back and forth, it fatigued the frame until even a small force could break the metal.
Two Comets blew apart in mid-air in 1954. Authorities blamed sabotage, until forensic evidence proved the planes failed in the same way. Very smart people figured out what I described above and De Havilland spent 4 years reengineering the Comet. On October 4th, 1958, a Comet operated the first London-New York passenger jet flight. The Comet’s monopoly didn’t last long: later that month, Pan Am flew the same route with the larger, faster, more efficient, better looking, more popular 707. The Comet’s biggest contribution to aviation is a stark reminder that, at 30,000 feet, little details matter.
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