Then, in 1954, disaster struck.
Several Comet aircraft suffered catastrophic mid-air breakups. Planes disintegrated while cruising at altitude, killing everyone on board. The crashes were shocking, mysterious, and devastating to public confidence in jet travel.
Investigators were baffled—until they did something no one had done before.
They placed an entire fuselage in a massive water tank and repeatedly pressurized it to simulate flight conditions.
What they found changed aviation forever.
