I believe Sud Aviation paid a fee to deHavilland to use the Comet nose section design on the Caravelle, under licence. This is not the same as 'copying'.
Boeing copying the alloy nose of the Comet on a 787 nose profile manufactured from molded composites - hardly!
Did they both choose the aerodynamic profile of a bullet profile to minimize the drag and maximize the aesthetic appeal of their respective designs? Probably, but the 21st century molded composite structure of the 787 allowed Boeing to do it with just four transparencies, instead of the ridiculously expensive and heavy eight or ten windows on the Comet, necessitated by the state-of-the-art aluminum structures of the day.
Last edited by twochai; 20th Mar 2008 at 15:12.