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Five planes that almost didn’t take off

Published: Jan 22, 2013 3:04 p.m. ET


Innovative aircraft whose careers got off to rough starts

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Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner is grounded until Boeing BA, -1.72%  can show it’s safe to fly following a series of technical problems. This isn’t the first time aeronautical engineers have been up against system glitches or even major design flaws in new aircraft. Many in the industry offhandedly refer to them as teething problems. Most can be corrected. But the stakes are high, especially at 35,000 feet, and the costs can be exorbitant both to the manufacturer and the airlines awaiting delivery. All this puts a lot of pressure on designers, engineers and parts suppliers to get it right the first time. If only it were that easy. Watch video on aviation’s shakey starts.

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Boeing’s Dreamliner won a loyal army of admirers when it was still on the drawing board. Building it was messier. The 787 program was dogged by over three years of production delays, including the redesign of central structural components and a shortage of titanium fasteners, causing Boeing to miss one deadline after another. When it came to the Dreamliner’s big unveiling, Boeing had to make do with a mock-up, tugging what was essentially a life-size model of the plan out of the hangar. Investors weren't amused and several airlines, unable to wait any longer, canceled orders.

Paul Spijkers/Wikipedia
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Things haven’t been any smoother for Airbus. The launch of its superjumbo A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, took six years, about twice as long as first scheduled. Like the 787, the A380 pushed the envelope, using a double-decker design never tried before on this scale for passenger service. Production was delayed by wiring problems, complex cabin configurations and sluggish assembly procedures. Impatient airlines canceled orders. Shortly after Airbus delivered its first A380s, one flown by Qantas suffered an “uncontained engine failure”. Basically, that means the engine blew apart, spraying metal shrapnel into other parts of the plane. Fortunately no one was killed, but the accident revealed cracks in fittings inside the wings, prompting a round of costly fixes.

Piergiuliano Chesi
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The McDonnell-Douglas DC-10 took shape in the late 1960s. It could carry nearly 400 passengers, making it a very large plane at the time, and went into commercial service in 1971. A year later, an American Airlines DC-10 lost its rear cargo door when taking off from Detroit. It didn’t crash, but it was a close call. The sudden loss of pressure severely damaged the rear of the aircraft. Investigators found a serious design flaw that could cause ground crews to unknowingly fail to close the DC-10’s aft cargo door. Some airlines made changes, others didn’t. But those cargo doors continued to be a problem and were blamed for bringing down a Turkish Airlines flight in 1974, killing all 346 on board. Another design deficiency surfaced after an American Airlines DC-10 crash at Chicago’s O’Hare in 1979, prompting the FAA to ground the aircraft until appropriate modifications could be made.

Ministry of Information/United Kingdom Government
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De Havilland’s Comet was the first commercial jetliner, entering service in May, 1952. Within a year it had been involved in several fatal accidents, leading to a court of inquiry and, eventually, to the conclusion that the fuselage and wing structure weren't handling the stress put on them. De Havilland tackled the problem by retrofitting the aircraft with thicker gauge skin and smaller windows, incorporating the beefier design in subsequent versions of the aircraft. Arguably, the plane never fully recovered from early setbacks. Sales were soon overtaken by Boeing’s first commercial jet, the 707, which came along 6 years later.

Matthew Anderson
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Lockheed’s Constellation was born during World War II but really took off in the late 1940s when it ramped up for civilian service. Like the 787, it was sleek and relied heavily on what at the time was a revolutionary design. It was also known among pilots as The World’s Finest Tri-Motor, a reference to its habit of limping in on just three of its four engines. Fortunately, the Constellation’s overall design was robust enough to accommodate a few much-needed modifications, but not before its airworthiness certificate was briefly pulled. Despite some high-anxiety flights in the early days, the “Connie” went on to enjoy an illustrious commercial career in the pre-jet era.

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