A very good article, but I was disappointed to see the misunderstanding about the de Havilland Comet failures repeated<p>> fatigue failures around its rectangular windows caused two crashes, resulting in it being withdrawn from service<p>While the accident investigation reports refer to "windows", which really doesn't help matters, the failure point was the ADF antenna mounting cutout. The passenger windows had rounded corners and did not fail in service.<p>The Comet was not withdrawn from service, they re-engineered and launched the Comet 4 (with oval windows, but that choice was to reduce manufacturing costs) in 1958, but the Boeing 707 was introduced that year and the DC-8 in 1959, ending the Comet's status as the only in-service jet airliner it held between 1952 and the grounding of the Comet 1 in 1954. The Comet 4 continued to fly in revenue service until at least the mid 1970s with lower-tier airlines.<p>The decision to bury the engines in the wings was one of the deciding factors for airlines - engines in nacelles are easier and cheaper to service and swap if required. Re-engining the Comet 4 to new more efficient turbofan engines the DC-8 and Boeing 707 introduced in 1960 and 1961 respectively required a new wing, but a podded engine was much easier to swap on to an existing airframe and this was done for many of the Boeing and Douglas aircraft.<p>The last Comet-derived aircraft - the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod - flew until 2011 in the RAF. They did look at upgrading them with new wings and avionics, but the plan was scrapped when they discovered that in the grand tradition of British engineering every fuselage was built slightly differently and they couldn't make replacement parts to a standard plan.<p>Anyway that's my rant in to the void today :)