DESCRIPTION

D.H. 106 Comet-4B Airliner 1949 Year 

1/144 Scale 

Plastic Model Kit 

Amodel 1448

Material: Plastic

Condition: New in original packaging

Historical reference

de Havilland DH.106 Comet (rus. De Havilland DH.106 Comet) is the world's first commercial jet airliner designed for short and medium haul flights. The Comet 1 prototype, designed and built by de Havilland at Hatfield Airfield in Hertfordshire, UK, first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four de Havilland Ghost turbojets located in the wing roots, a pressurized cockpit and large square windows. It provided a relatively quiet, comfortable passenger compartment for its era and was commercially viable when it debuted in 1952.

However, just a year after the start of operation, airlines began to have problems, and within twelve months, three Comets were lost in widely publicized accidents after catastrophic damage during the flight. It was found that the cause of two of them was the destruction of the structure as a result of metal fatigue of the airframe - a phenomenon not fully understood at that time, and the third accident occurred due to overstressing the airframe during flight in difficult weather conditions. "Kometa" was decommissioned and subjected to comprehensive checks. Ultimately, construction and design flaws were identified, including improper riveting and dangerous stress concentrations around some of the square windows. As a result, the Comet was extensively redesigned, with oval windows installed, structural reinforcements and other changes. Meanwhile, competing manufacturers took the lessons learned from the Comet into account when designing their own aircraft.

Although sales never fully recovered, the improved Kometa-2 model and the Kometa-3 prototype led to the creation of an updated Kometa-4 series, which debuted in 1958 and remained in commercial service until 1981. The comet has also been adapted for various military purposes such as VIP transportation, medical and passenger transportation, and surveillance. The last Kometa-4 used as a research platform made its last flight in 1997. The most extensive modification resulted in the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod specialized maritime patrol aircraft, which remained in service with the Royal Air Force until 2011, more than 60 years after the first flight of the Comet.

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