Crack arrestors were used to reinforce the airplane hull of the De Havilland Comet following a series of catastrophic accidents related to structural design problems that were previously unknown.
Classic cases of metal failures due to stress concentrations include metal fatigue at the corners of the windows of the De Havilland Comet aircraft and brittle fractures at the corners of hatches in Liberty ships in cold and stressful conditions in winter storms in the Atlantic Ocean.
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It was re-engined with more powerful, 937 hp (699 kW) Gnome-Rhône 14N radials in 1937 before being entered into that year's Istres–Damascus–Paris race, finishing fifth in a time of 21 hours 3 min, with de-militarised Savoia-Marchetti SM.79s bombers occupying the first three places and a de Havilland Comet racer finishing fourth.
On Friday evening, 3 July 1970, a Clarksons chartered Dan Air de Havilland Comet, registration G-APDN, en route from Manchester to Barcelona deviated from the intended course and crashed into high ground at Sierra del Montseny, Gerona, in northern Spain.
The engine, as redesigned, went on to power landmark aircraft such as the English Electric Canberra bomber, and the de Havilland Comet and Sud Aviation Caravelle airliners.
The intended market was for assisting take-off of de Havilland Comet 1 airliners (as hot and high operations in the British Empire were considered important) and also for V bombers carrying heavy nuclear weapons.