And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Metal fatigue due to pressurization cycles. At least two, probably three early crashes were due to it. This was an unknown phenomenon at the time. Although popularly attributed to the squarish windows, it wasn’t really the shape of the windows, it was the metal fatigue, but the windows were rounded anyway in subsequent production. The actual fatigue cracks began near a crew nav window and an escape hatch window.
But fatigue wasn’t the only issue. Out of 114 Comet variants built, 26 hulls were lost. And then the 707 appeared and took over the world.
And the poor Comet lost out to the 707 airframe twice. Although offered the E-3A AWACS by the US 20 years later, Britain decided to build their own complete system based on the Nimrod, which was a military variant of the Comet. Aside from program management problems and excessive complexity, it turned out the Nimrod wasn’t big enough to hold all the equipment required for the AEW design. The RAF ended up buying for E-3Ds anyway.
The windows were square, this resulted in stress at the corners leading to metal fatigue and failure. The result are the rounded porthole type windows now seen on all airliners. It took more than one crash with the loss of hundreds of lives to learn that weakness and make the needed changes. Most improvements in airline safety come at the cost of people dying in a crash.
There's a 1955 book on the accident investigation titled "The Comet Riddle". Very interesting and not dated in style. The state of the bodies recovered was a pointer to explosive decompression. I recall there being concerns about sloppy workmanship such as poor fit and roughly finished window openings which may have been contributing factors. Comets did go on to have longish lives with second tier airlines but the 707 made it instantly outdated.
And then the damn jet crashed and killed everyone. Metal fatigue around the windows if my memory serves.
ReplyDeleteMetal fatigue due to pressurization cycles. At least two, probably three early crashes were due to it. This was an unknown phenomenon at the time. Although popularly attributed to the squarish windows, it wasn’t really the shape of the windows, it was the metal fatigue, but the windows were rounded anyway in subsequent production. The actual fatigue cracks began near a crew nav window and an escape hatch window.
ReplyDeleteBut fatigue wasn’t the only issue. Out of 114 Comet variants built, 26 hulls were lost. And then the 707 appeared and took over the world.
And the poor Comet lost out to the 707 airframe twice. Although offered the E-3A AWACS by the US 20 years later, Britain decided to build their own complete system based on the Nimrod, which was a military variant of the Comet. Aside from program management problems and excessive complexity, it turned out the Nimrod wasn’t big enough to hold all the equipment required for the AEW design. The RAF ended up buying for E-3Ds anyway.
Metal fatigue around the windows over the wing assembly. Help do a class on that for Boeing. Sad story all around, the Comet.
DeleteRode one from Munich to Berlin in '63. IIRC it was Air France.
ReplyDeleteThe windows were square, this resulted in stress at the corners leading to metal fatigue and failure. The result are the rounded porthole type windows now seen on all airliners. It took more than one crash with the loss of hundreds of lives to learn that weakness and make the needed changes. Most improvements in airline safety come at the cost of people dying in a crash.
ReplyDeleteThere's a 1955 book on the accident investigation titled "The Comet Riddle". Very interesting and not dated in style. The state of the bodies recovered was a pointer to explosive decompression. I recall there being concerns about sloppy workmanship such as poor fit and roughly finished window openings which may have been contributing factors. Comets did go on to have longish lives with second tier airlines but the 707 made it instantly outdated.
Delete