Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
The present preoccupation of aircraft designers and users with fatigue problems, brought to a head by the Comet disasters, has rendered the notion of the finite life of an aeroplane a commonplace to the man in the street, and has made the assessment of probabilities of failure and the collection of statistics regarding loads and structural properties a matter of detailed concern for all designers. This was not always so. In 1939, when Fairthorne and I essayed a first paper on airworthiness statistics it received practically no attention and publication was delayed for years until after the 1939–45 War. Even in 1942, an exploratory “ Philosophy of Aeroplane Strength ” brought smiles to the faces of practical designers rather than the real interest that the “new slant,” as some said, of its probability approach raised in a few scientists.