CLASSIC AIRLINERS de HAVILLAND COMET PIONEER JET AIRLINER BOAC AIR FRANCE RAF MEXICANA

AIRLINER COLOR HISTORY

SOFTBOUND BOOK *** LIKE NEW CONDITION **** 98 PAGES

THE WARTIME BRABAZON COMMITTEE & THE POST-WAR BRITISH AIRLINER INDUSTRY

RATIONALIZING THE AIRLINES

GEOFFREY de HAVILLAND – GIFTED AVIATION PIONEER

BRITAIN’S LEAD IN GAS TURBINE JET ENGINE TECHNOLOGY – SIR FRANK WHITTLE

BUILDING THE COMET PROTOTYE

FLIGHT TESTING – TEST PILOT JOHN CUNNINGHAM

DH COMET PRODUCTION LINE ARCHIVES

PURE JET AIRLINER SERVICE (BOAC & AIR FRANCE)

AIRLINER INTERIOR – RARE COLOR ARTWORK

COMET PROBLEMS

MILITARY SERVICE

COMET 1 (CANADIAN PACIFIC)

THE COMET 2E AND COMET 3 DVELOPMENTS

COMET 4 (MALAYSIAN AIRWAYS, BEA, BOAC, AEROLINEAS ARGENTINAS, MEXICANA, KUWIT AIRWAYS, UNITED ARAB AIRLINES, DAN-AIR LONDON, CHANNEL AIRWAYS

END OF THE LINE

SURVIVING AIRFRAMES

CENTERFOLD CUTAWAY DRAWING

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional Information from Internet Encyclopedia

The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first production commercial jetliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at its Hatfield Aerodrome, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom headquarters, the Comet 1 prototype first flew on 27 July 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four de Havilland Ghost turbojet engines buried in the wings, a pressurised fuselage, and large square windows. For the era, it offered a relatively quiet, comfortable passenger cabin and showed signs of being a commercial success at its 1952 debut.

A year after entering commercial service the Comets began suffering problems, with three of them breaking up during mid-flight in well-publicised accidents. This was later found to be due to catastrophic metal fatigue in the airframes, not well understood at the time. The Comet was withdrawn from service and extensively tested to discover the cause; the first incident had been incorrectly blamed on adverse weather. Design flaws, including dangerous stresses at the corners of the square windows and installation methodology, were ultimately identified. As a result, the Comet was extensively redesigned with oval windows, structural reinforcement and other changes. Rival manufacturers meanwhile heeded the lessons learned from the Comet while developing their own aircraft.

Although sales never fully recovered, the improved Comet 2 and the prototype Comet 3 culminated in the redesigned Comet 4 series which debuted in 1958 and had a productive career of over 30 years. The Comet was adapted for a variety of military roles such as VIP, medical and passenger transport, as well as surveillance. The most extensive modification resulted in a specialised maritime patrol aircraft variant, the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod. Nimrod remained in service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) until June 2011, over 60 years after the Comet's first flight.

The Comet was an all-metal low-wing cantilever monoplane powered by four jet engines; it had a four-place cockpit occupied by two pilots, a flight engineer, and a navigator. The clean, low-drag design of the aircraft featured many design elements that were fairly uncommon at the time, including a swept-wing leading edge, integral wing fuel tanks, and four-wheel bogie main undercarriage units designed by de Havilland. Two pairs of turbojet engines (on the Comet 1s, Halford H.2 Ghosts, subsequently known as de Havilland Ghost 50 Mk1s) were buried into the wings.

The original Comet was approximately the length of the later Boeing 737-100, but carried fewer people in a significantly more spacious environment. BOAC installed 36 reclining "slumberseats" with 45-inch (1,100 mm) centres on its first Comets, allowing for greater leg room in front and behind; Air France had 11 rows of seats with four seats to a row installed on its Comets. Large picture window views and table seating accommodations for a row of passengers afforded a "feel of comfort and luxury" atypical of transportation of the period. Amenities included a galley that could serve hot and cold food and drinks, a bar, and separate men's and women's toilets. Provisions for emergency situations included several life rafts stored in the wings near the engines, and individual life vests were stowed under each seat.

One of the most striking aspects of Comet travel was the quiet, "vibration-free flying" as touted by BOAC. For passengers used to propeller-driven airliners, smooth and quiet jet flight was a novel experience.

The Comet was a hit with passengers including Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, who were guests on a special flight on 30 June 1953 hosted by Sir Geoffrey and Lady de Havilland, and thus became the first members of the British Royal Family to fly by jet.  Flights on the Comet were about 50 percent faster than on advanced piston-engined aircraft such as the Douglas DC-6 (490 mph for the Comet compared to the DC-6's 315 mph), and a faster rate of climb further cut flight times. In August 1953 BOAC scheduled nine-stop London to Tokyo flights by Comet for 36 hours, compared to 86 hours and 35 minutes on their Argonaut piston airliner. (Pan Am's DC-6B was scheduled for 46 hours 45 minutes.) The five-stop flight from London to Johannesburg was scheduled for 21 hr 20 min.

In their first year Comets carried 30,000 passengers. As the aircraft could be profitable with a load factor as low as 43 percent, commercial success was expected. The Ghost engines allowed the Comet to fly above weather competitors had to fly through. They ran smoothly and were less noisy than piston engines, had low maintenance costs, and were fuel-efficient above 30,000 ft (9,100 m),. In summer 1953 eight BOAC Comets left London each week: three to Johannesburg, two to Tokyo, two to Singapore and one to Colombo.

In 1953 the Comet appeared to have achieved success for de Havilland. In addition to the sales to BOAC, two French airlines, Union Aéromaritime de Transport and Air France, each acquired three Comet 1As, an upgraded variant with greater fuel capacity, for flights to West Africa and the Middle East. A slightly longer version of the Comet 1 with more powerful engines, the Comet 2, was being developed, and orders were placed by Air India, British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines, Japan Air Lines, Linea Aeropostal Venezolana, and Panair do Brasil. American carriers Capital Airlines, National Airlines, and Pan Am placed orders for the planned Comet 3, an even larger, longer-range version for transatlantic operations. Qantas was interested in the Comet 1 but concluded that a version with more range and better takeoff performance was needed for the London to Canberra route.