953 nut 67,447 #1 Posted 2 hours ago July 27, 1949, the world’s first jet-propelled airliner, the British De Havilland Comet, makes its maiden test-flight in England. The jet engine would ultimately revolutionize the airline industry, shrinking air travel time in half by enabling planes to climb faster and fly higher. 2 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
8ntruck 9,055 #2 Posted 1 hour ago The Comet was a lesson in the failure analysis class I took in college. Several of them fell out of the sky. Turns out that fatigue cracks in the fuselage were the cause. Seems the stress concentrations caused by the small radii in the corners of the passenger windows provided places for the cracks to start, while cabin pressurization and flight stresses caused them to grow. This lesson is why passenger windows in airliners are that odd shape that is a combination of a square and a circle today. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
