The mechanics in the flight department used to get old aircraft from the military. They would fly them in, then crawl underneath and cut the wing spar with a torch so they could not be flown. Quite often these aircraft were required to be destroyed. In fact in an airport in Illinois I know where a group of good AT-6's engines and all were buried.
Bill Lear created the Learjet. Everyone knows that. Toward the end of his career he created the LearFan; a composite airplane which was suppose to change the world.
I would not say it was a failure but it the learning from the project made the airplane obsolete before it was done. After he died his wife convinced foreign Kings and dignitaries to sink several more billion in it and it collapsed. No surprise.
In the airplane industry designers go from company to company. The information gained form the Learfan went into the Beach/Raytheon Starship program. The Beach Starship was better equipped to be marketable but was still behind the curve and the support and liability exceeded the sales of the aircraft so Raytheon bought up all the starship they produced so they would not have to support them. I think 2 or 3 are still flying.
These airplanes were gathered up to part out, die.
This technology then into the Raytheon Premier with an all composite fuselage. It was still heaver then anticipated but it has become a marketable and serviceable aircraft.
You may remember Jack Roush coming in too slow and losing control of his in a landing at Oshkosh and walking away with a bloody nose:
