The de Havilland Comet, not the Boeing 747, opened the quadjet era
A look at how the de Havilland Comet preceded the Boeing 747 in commercial jet travel, and how testing of its airframe obscured a structural failure mechanism.
The Boeing 747 is often credited with starting the quadjet era, but it was not the aircraft that began it. That distinction belongs to the de Havilland Comet, which opened the commercial jet age.
The Comet's engineering achievement came with a paradox. Overload testing carried out to validate the airframe concealed a microscopic structural failure mechanism in the thin aluminum skin, leaving what amounted to an invisible timer running across the fleet.
Sources
- simpleflying.comThe Boeing 747 Actually Didn’t Pioneer Quadjet Travel: Here’s The Jet That Did