USAir (Now American Airlines)

Berkshire's 1989 purchase of USAir preferred stock became one of Buffett's most cited cautionary examples. He later joked that a 'far-sighted capitalist' at Kitty Hawk should have shot down Orville Wright's plane — the airline industry's structural economics (commodity product, high fixed costs, labor unions, capital intensity) have made it almost impossible to earn returns above the cost of capital over a full cycle.