Re: Boeing 707 arrived late for a reason

From: George William Herbert (gherbert_at_retro.com)
Date: 12/28/04 

Date: 28 Dec 2004 06:35:48 GMT

Nomen Nescio <nobody@dizum.com> wrote:
>The English beat us out with the Comet I, the worlds first jetliner, first
>flown in 1949. Boeing was a Johnny-come-lately with the 707 in 1958. But,
>we were late for good cause as history proves.
>
>707s are still in service; early Comets blew up in midair.

Early 707s are not in service, they've all aged out and been
scrapped or museumed.

Both the Comet and 707 designs are still flying, and England is
still even low rate producing Nimrods.

The design failure that lead to the Comet explosions and the discovery
of the seriousness of metal fatigue and catastrophic structural
failure was one which just happened to happen to that team;
it could have happened to any of a number of prior designs which
were pressurized aircraft.

Lack of insight into the problem leads to false conclusions.
There are always suprises waiting in dark corners to snag the
unwary or unlucky. Witness AA 587, the Airbus whose tail
snapped off with the flight crew doing exactly what they
had been trained to do and exactly what they and their
airline believed was not just a perfectly safe, but the
right thing to do.

-george william herbert
gherbert@retro.com