- The Europa Rocket failed five times, without a single successful launch
- The Messerschmitt Me 163 was so dangerous that it killed more Luftwaffe pilots than Allied airmen.
- The world's first commercial jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1, introduced into service in 1952, suffered three crashes in the next two years due to design flaw and did not return to service until 1958.
- Most reusable space vehicles: Shuttle Buran , HOTOL , Hermes , CRV , the X-33 / VentureStar , various NASA space planes, and arguably the Space Shuttle .
- The Flying Boat , aka the " Spruce Goose ", Howard Hughes 's often-ridiculed massive aircraft. Hughes himself did not consider it a failure, and kept it in flying condition until the end of his life. Though the project was consistently portrayed as a failure by the media, even prior to its debut, the H-4 Hercules in some senses presaged the massive transport aircraft of the late 20th century, such as the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy and the Antonov An-124 and An-225, demonstrating that the physical and aerodynamic principles which make flight possible are not limited by the size of the aircraft.
- The Soviet N1 Rocket , equivalent to the US moon rocket Saturn V , repeatedly exploded during takeoff, thereby earning it a 100% failure rate.
- Project Vanguard (1958), the first attempt by the United States to put a satellite into orbit. The project managers insisted on using a new, civilian-designed, purpose-built rocket. There were repeated embarrassing crashes. After Sputnik, it was quickly decided to use proven military missile designs as the base for future space attempts.
- The Boeing 7J7 , intended as a replacement for the Boeing 727 , was cancelled in 1987 because airlines were concerned about the economics and noise of its unproven Unducted Fan engines. The cancellation of the 7J7 led Boeing to concentrate on 727 replacements in the 737 and 757 families.
- The Boeing Sonic Cruiser , intended as a replacement for the Boeing 767 and meant to fly at near the speed of sound ( Transonic ). Airlines rejected the idea of an aircraft that, while as efficient as a 767 and carrying the same number of passengers, would only fly marginally faster. The cancellation of the Sonic Cruiser led Boeing to concentrate on 767 replacements in the Boeing 787 , which used much Sonic Cruiser technology.
- The Chauchat light machine gun - this French weapon of World War I was notorious for its unreliability, frequent jamming and lack of precision manufacturing.
- The German Maus tank was so heavy (188 tons) that it was unusable.
- The British SA80 rifle, whilst an excellent weapon on the firing range, was notoriously unreliable in field conditions and is still the subject of critcism.
- The Ross Rifle was used by Canadian troops in World War I ; it was a great gun until it was brought into the trenches, where it constantly jammed and backfired. Canadian soldiers were forced to salvage rifles from dead British soldiers.
- The original M16 was so widely known as a failure that initially, Vietnamese troops refused to take them from slain soldiers during the Vietnam War , although later versions have proved to be reliable.
- Cold Fusion - after much hype, claims of success proved false. (Research into cold fusion continues.)
- The Gothic Cathédrale Saint-Pierre De Beauvais in Beauvais , France, begun in the year 1247, was an ambitious attempt at the tallest cathedral in Europe. The vaulting of the choir collapsed in 1284 due to poor engineering, and a central tower failed in 1573, permanently halting work on the project. A part of the cathedral still stands and is known for its fine Stained Glass .
- The John Hancock Tower in Boston is said to have been "known more for its early engineering flaws than for its architectural achievement." Wind-induced swaying was so large, it induced motion sickness in upper-floor residents, requiring the addition of a pair of 300-ton dampers on the 58th floor. Another unrelated but serious problem was that 65 of its 10,344 floor-to-ceiling plate-glass windowpanes fell out of the building to the ground during construction (with, amazingly, no injuries to passersby or workers), and all required replacement. During engineering analysis of these problems, it was also discovered that under certain wind conditions the building could actually collapse, requiring 1500 tons of structural reinforcements in the building's core.
- The , the beginning of Postmodernism , the signal of a profound disconnect between designers and users, and a turning point in Public Housing and Urban Planning .
- Portsmouth 's Tricorn Centre , a mixed use Brutalist -style building, designed by Owen Luder and opened in 1966 ; it was voted as one of Britain 's ugliest buildings, and was considered a social hazard. The structure originally consisted of Apartment s, Store s, a Laserquest arena, a nightclub, and a Parking Garage , with each facility closed down and condemned. The complex was demolished in 2004 .
- The elevated walkways of the Hyatt hotel in Kansas City, Missouri , collapsed during a Tea Dance in 1981 , killing more than 100 people. (See Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse .)
- The Sampoong Department Store Collapse killed over 500 in 1995 .
- The May 24 , 2001 , collapse of the Versailles Wedding Hall in Jerusalem , Israel , killed 23 and injured more than 200. The collapse was blamed on poor construction practices. The disaster, which is considered Israel's worst civil disaster, was caught on Videotape . The wedding hall was built using the cheaper Pal-Kal method, which uses thinner sections of Concrete than usual during construction. The building method was banned in 1996 because of safety concerns. Ten people were arrested by the Israeli authorities, including the wedding hall's owners, the engineer who invented the Pal-Kal method, and contractors and builders involved with recent renovations. In October 2004 , two of the owners of the hall were convicted of causing death through Negligence ; two other employees were acquitted.
- Isambard Kingdom Brunel 's Atmospheric Railway in South Devon, England in the 1840's failed because of the expense of operating the pumping stations and problems in maintaining a vacuum seal. The main issues were the impossibility of two lines crossing and the more prosaic issue of rats eating the leather used for the airtight seals.
- on its first voyage and did not have enough lifeboats for everyone aboard, so many of the passengers drowned. Her watertight bulkheads designed to allow the vessel to remain afloat in the event of compartments being flooded did not extend to a high enough deck level to have the desired effect. The film '' Titanic '' was a dramatisation of these events.
- Vasa (ship) : A 17th-century Swedish warship, it sank on its maiden voyage because of design flaws; when fully loaded with crew, supplies and weaponry, the lower-deck gun ports were low enough to allow water to flow in
- s rushed into production by Britain during World War One . The vessels were famous for sinking, exploding and generally going out of control. On 31 January 1917, during an exercise off May Island, Scotland, 105 submariners were killed in an accident that resulted in the complete loss of 2 subs and the damaging 3 others.
|
