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Regarding the probable eventual outcome, I agree with you Lewis, but there
the similarity ends.
Firstly, the Comets' structural failures were not the result of any kind of skullduggery, or attempts to hide defects, they were the result of ignorance.
Any first year mechanical engineering student would know better than to fit
square windows to a mechanism that was entering largely unknown territory
[as far as stresses were concerned]. After the years of tank testing revealed
the problem, and the windows were changed, it became a wonderful aircraft,
although by then the 707 had entered the market and stolen the U.K's
thunder. IMHO the Comet 4c was the most beautiful airliner ever built.
The British Labour government, the U.S. government, and the Comet tragedies between them destroyed the British aviation industry.
raymo
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