The B-17 almost failed acceptance by the AAC in testing, as Boeing’s 299 prototype crashed upon takeoff of the second outing. Boeing built 13 more at their own expense and loaned them for testing against the Douglas B-18 Bolo. 12,000 B-17 versus 350 B-18 built.
That wouldn’t have been ideal for the war effort. That’s the whole point of prototypes put through testing. Fix it and fly again. All X-programs break hardware to step up to a better version through iterations adding more capability.
SN8 odds were 3/10 for a landing. That it performed properly until the last two seconds was an engineering success beyond expectations. They were very pleased that it pulled-off the return to vertical at the landing zone.
+. Exactly. Hugh success.