Lancaster designer Roy Chadwick was killed in a crash in 1947 caused by reversed aileron cables on the Avro Tudor 2 prototype.
"Aileron reversal", like other examples of control reversal, is an aerodynamic
phenomenon and is not the same as physically cross-connected control
surfaces.
Aileron reversal usually happens near the aircraft's maximum structural design speed where aerodynamic forces acting on the ailerons bend the wing instead of rolling the aircraft, the result being a roll in the opposite direction. The Tudor 2 crash happened immediately after take-off, at nowhere near maximum speed, and was absolutely and definitely traced to the ailerons being connected to the controls the wrong way around. The aircraft had been worked on overnight and a system of chains connecting control column to the ailerons had been disconnected and reconnected in the process. During pre-flight, the pilot, who couldn't see the wing tips from the cockpit, had relied on shouting 'ailerons' to a crew member in the rear cockpit who could see the wingtips through the windows. Unfortunately, what he couldn't see from there was which way the pilot was moving the control column. The aircraft didn't burn and the incorrectly connected chains were discovered during the subsequent investigation.
Also killed was Avro chief test pilot Bill Thorn as well as several others, and the crash came within a hair's breadth of claiming Avro Managing Director Sir Roy Dobson, who was actually seated on the plane when he was called away for an urgent phone call at the last minute!
Source:
AVRO - The History of an Aircraft Company by Harry Holmes
