Failed Business Innovation - Essay Example

Failed Business Innovation Coming up with an idea that is going to change the shape of the business market is quite challenging. Innovation is a crucial thing in any organization or a company that wants to excel in the business market. Innovation can not be avoided because each day consumers want products and services that satisfy their needs. An innovation becomes successful when a company’s product and services are able to find customers and attract them. The customers in turn correspond by pledging their loyalty to the company’s products and services. Having fulfilled all these, the innovation is able to create new business for the company (Dalal, n.d.) However, not all innovations are successful. Some of the innovations after their launch fail due to a number of reasons that are inherent to their development. When an innovation fails, the companies may quit innovating or revise its strategies. For most innovators, failure acts as a trigger to innovate further. These innovators get better ideas from their failed experiments and in most cases, the innovations come out successful (Dalal, n.d.). Failure and success occurs to both big and small businesses. How a business whether big or small deals with the outcome, determines how successful it can be in its innovation. An example of a failed business innovation is the COMET jet passenger liner. COMET Jet Passenger Liner COMET jet passenger liner known as the de Havilland Comet 1 was the first jet airliner in the history of air transport. The jet airliner entered into service in the year 1952 on May 2. The jet airliner served the routes between London and Johannesburg. The launch and commercialization of de Havilland Comet was done in 1952. Before its launch, the Comet was put under extensive series of flight tests that included tropical operations, overseas flights and high altitude takeoffs. The test flights amounted to 500 hours of proving flights and flight crew training. Having satisfactorily completed the tests, the Comet jet airliner was given a go ahead to start its operations. The inauguration of the de Havilland Comet jet airliner commercial services between London and Johannesburg, and Singapore and Tokyo was done by the British Overseas Airways Corporation. The start of the commercial services was successful utilizing only 23.5 hours for the trip between London and Johannesburg instead of the normal 40 hours that a normal aircraft utilizes. The hours used were inclusive of the refueling stops in Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone. This was the start of the jet airline evolution and the innovation did not last long because of engineering faults (Gilbert and Perl, 2008). These faults lead to ban of the Comet commercial services. The Comet could not make non-stop flights between New York and Paris or London due to the mysterious crashes that were as a result of design flaw. Invention of de Havilland Comet Jet Airliner De Havilland Comet jet airliner was invented by Geoffrey de Havilland in the year 1943. De Havilland had started his own company known as the De Havilland Aircraft Company Ltd in the city of London. He concentrated more on civil aircrafts between the years 1920 and 1930. Major inventions at this period were the Dragon, Albatross and Dragon Rapide and Flamingo airliners. By the year 1934, he had established a modern aircraft factory in the new acquired sites at Hatfield and Hertfordshire. By this time, the company was successful in making aircraft engines and propellers. In 1941, the company ventured into making jet engines and the first jet engine was called Goblin. The Goblin engine powered the Vampire jet fighter and it was first flown in the year 1943 (Day and McNeil, 2003). The design proposal of the Comet jet was created by de Havilland it was accepted in 1943 by the Brabazon Committee. The aircraft design was later ratified by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). The design of the aircraft was more advanced and many things like aerodynamics, performance and materials were better than the previous airliners. The aircraft had highly pressurized cabin and 4 de Havilland Ghost turbo jets. The aircraft was to fly at a cruising speed of 500 miles per hour. With these features, the aircraft could fly higher and much faster than the previous airliners (Maltby, n.d.). Failures of the de Havilland Comet Jet Airliner Test flights began in the year 1949 and it was not until the year 1952 when it began its commercial services. This made Britain to be first country to launch fast passenger air travel and this gave them an upper hand in the air transport industry in the world. However, the glory of having the fast passenger aircraft did not last for long. Four of the Comet aircraft that were built crashed. The first three crashes happened the same year Comet aircraft began its commercial services. Two of the crashes were as a result of pilot error and the other crashes as a result of poor design of the cabin. The first crash was in Rome and this was as a result of problems with taking off. The low thrust/weight and low power ratio of the Ghost turbo jets made the Comet vulnerable to over rotation and loss of acceleration during take off. The problem was corrected by rectification of the flying surfaces. The subsequent crashes at Calcutta and Elba in 1954 gave no clue as to what caused the crash. This is because much of the wreckage could not be salvaged and the wreckage found was not made available to the British authorities. Assumptions were made to identify the real cause of these crashes. With these assumptions, the Comet aircraft fleet was modified fifty times. Although the cause of the accident was unknown, the authorities assumed that everything that they thought was wrong was corrected by these modifications. Thus, Comet aircraft services were not terminated. Three months after the Elba crash, another Comet aircraft disappeared into the sea at Naples. After these four crashes, certificates that allowed Comet to fly were withdrawn in the year 1954 (Bignell and Fortune, 1984). After a certain period, more wreckage was salvaged by marine salvage experts and the Royal Navy and tests were initiated to determine the cause of these accidents. At the same time, another Comet aircraft was subjected to full scale testing. The full scale testing was done to determine the strength of the aircraft fuselage. The results of the testing were explosion of the pressure cabin that was instigated by a small crack. Full assessment of the wreckage from Elba revealed a similar cause. Later revelations show that the design of the cabin was faulty. The metal surrounding the cabin windows was subjected to much higher load than it could support. This was as a result of repeated change in the pressure weakening the metal and concentrating the load around the corner of the cabin window panel. The aircraft testing done by de Havilland did not reveal any of these faults. Testing done by de Havilland on the pressure cabin strength was made on two separate halves of the complete cabin. The cabin was separated and modified to make the testing easy. When separated the half cabins exhibited much strength than they would have in a complete aircraft. Further testing done by de Havilland to determine the strength of the structure was misleading. The Impact of de Havilland Comet Jet Airliner on the Society The British and the Germans were the pioneers of the innovation of jet-propelled aircrafts. De Havilland Aircraft Company Ltd is accredited for being the innovator of jet airliners. This is the first impact of the de Havilland Comet jet airliner. Britain and Germany were the only nations that used jet airplanes for commercial purposes and engaging in battle during the Second World War (Pomata, 2002). The second impact is the expansion of business. In the 1950s, the British were the major players in the airline business. This was as a result of the entry of Comet jet airliner, the fastest passenger aircraft at that period. This meant that people using the Comet jet airliner could travel within the shortest time possible than people using other aircrafts. Comet became famous with many passengers and this attracted many orders from major airlines around the world. It forced other airline competitors in the United States like the Pan American Airlines to order one of the Comet airliners. At that time there were no other competitors that could much up Comet. However, several crashes attributed to design faults and pilot errors lead to their exit from the business market (Pomata, 2002). The third impact is increased competition from other nations to develop better performing aircrafts. Nations like the United States were forced to develop aircrafts like the Boeing that performed better than the British ones. The Soviet aircraft industry was ordered by Stalin to build a jet airliner that matched up the Comet. However, in the preceding years the British government supported several projects that lead to the development of aircrafts that used gas turbine engines. The idea behind these innovations was to develop a market place for new technologies with high-speed turbojet and turboprop powered airliner. These technologies were better than the Americans’ piston engine airliners (Pomata, 2002). The Fall of de Havilland Comet Jet Airliner Several corrections and modifications were made to the Comet and in 1958; Comet entered the airline industry again in form of Comet 4. However, this came too late because United States had developed aircrafts like the Boeing 707 which were much larger, faster and longer-ranged. The design of the Boeing 707 was based on B-47 bomber and it had four P&W’s turbojets that were four times more powerful than the Ghost turbojets. Less than 125 Comet jet airliners were built. The only surviving Comet jet airliner by 2002 is in Britain and it is owned by the British Royal Air Force, the airliner is named Nimrod (Pomata, 2002). References Bignell, V. & Fortune, J. (1984). Understanding systems failures. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. Dalal, S. (n.d.). Creativity and innovation in business. Creativity Innovation eBook. Day, L. & McNeil, I. (2003). Biographical dictionary of the history of technology. London: Routledge. Gilbert, R. & Perl, A. (2008). Transport revolutions: Moving people and freight without oil. London, UK: Earthscan. Maltby, D. (n.d.). DH Comet history. Retrieved from http://www.dmflightsim.co.uk/dh106_comet_history.htm Pomata, A. E. (2002). Boeing 707 turbojet airliner. HistoryLink.org, 3890. Retrieved from http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3890 Read More