"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
link.net...
Spiv wrote:
This is balls. The most extensive research into aircraft frames and
metal
fatigue was the Comet after one fell from the sky. It was
solved )(square
windows were replaced by oval windows and other changes. ALL this
research was given to the USA. They implemented in in their bombers
and commercial planes.
Boeing didn't learn from DeHavilland's mistakes, their transport design
was
finalized and construction well underway before the first in-flight
breakup
of a Comet. Boeing engineers selected an aluminum skin that was more than
four times the thickness of the Comet's. The US CAA also expressed
reservations about the squared-off windows of the Comet and the buried
engines in the wing roots. They preferred oval or round windows and
podded
engines in the event of an in-flight engine disintegration. The Boeing
367-80, prototype for both the 707 and the KC-135, made it's first flight
on
July 15, 1954. The cause of the Comet in-flight breakups was determined
on
June 24, 1954. Three weeks was hardly enough time for Boeing to have
learned from DeHavilland's mistakes.
As for the Boeing bombers, the B-47 made it's first flight a year and a
half
before the Comet made it's first flight and six and a half years before
the
cause of the Comet failures was revealed. Nearly 1000 B-47s had been
built
by the time the Comet's flaw had been revealed. The first flight of a
B-52
was on October 2, 1952, the first flight of a production B-52 was on
August
5, 1954.
See my other post on this. Information to the US being drip fed to the US.
It wasn't, here is the final report.
The research into the Comet was vital for many subsequent designs. The
prime problems with the Comet was that they would not develop a more
powerful engine because of costs. So they made the skin far too thin for
light weight to suit an existing engine. The square windows didn't help at
all.
If a more powerful engine (and thicker skin) and oval windows used in the
initial design, it would have worked very well. But!!!! Many subsequent
planes would have fallen out of the sky with the problems the Comet had in
metal fatigue, etc. In hindsight the Comets research made all jet planes
far safer, and saved many lives.
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