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 鈥?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.