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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,904 posts)
Wed May 2, 2018, 02:45 PM May 2018

Happy anniversary, sort of: the first commercial flight of the de Havilland Comet, 1952

Last edited Wed May 2, 2018, 03:52 PM - Edit history (1)

Note the Constellation in the background, behind the empennage:

#OnThisDay in 1952, the world's first jet airliner, the "De Havilland Comet 1", made its first flight.



They flew until 1997? Excuse me, 2011?

de Havilland Comet

Role Narrow-body jetliner
National origin United Kingdom
Manufacturer de Havilland
First flight 27 July 1949
Introduction 2 May 1952 with BOAC
Retired 14 March 1997 (Comet 4C XS235)[1]
Status Retired

Primary users BOAC
British European Airways
Dan-Air
Royal Air Force

Number built 114 (including prototypes)[2][N 1]

Unit cost Comet 1: £275,000 (1952)[4]
Developed into Hawker Siddeley Nimrod

The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jetliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at its Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four de Havilland Ghost turbojet engines buried in the wing roots, a pressurised cabin, and large square windows. For the era, it offered a relatively quiet, comfortable passenger cabin and was commercially promising at its debut in 1952.

However, within a year problems started to emerge, with three Comets lost within twelve months in highly publicised accidents, after suffering catastrophic in-flight break-ups. Two of these were found to be caused by structural failure resulting from metal fatigue in the airframe, a phenomenon not fully understood at the time. The other one was due to overstressing of the airframe during flight through severe weather. The Comet was withdrawn from service and extensively tested. Design and construction flaws, including improper riveting and dangerous concentrations of stress around some square openings in the fuselage, were ultimately identified. As a result, the Comet was extensively redesigned, with oval windows, structural reinforcements 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 also 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 variant, the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, which remained in service with the Royal Air Force until 2011, over 60 years after the Comet's first flight.
....

Operational history

Introduction

The earliest production aircraft, registered G-ALYP ( "Yoke Peter" ), first flew on 9 January 1951 and was subsequently lent to BOAC for development flying by its Comet Unit. On 22 January 1952, the fifth production aircraft, registered G-ALYS, received the first Certificate of Airworthiness awarded to a Comet, six months ahead of schedule. On 2 May 1952, as part of BOAC's route-proving trials, G-ALYP took off on the world's first jetliner[N 14] flight with fare-paying passengers and inaugurated scheduled service from London to Johannesburg. The final Comet from BOAC's initial order, registered G-ALYZ, began flying in September 1952 and carried cargo along South American routes while simulating passenger schedules.



BOAC Comet 1 at Entebbe Airport, Uganda in 1952

The Comet was immediately popular 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 they 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.



There was a book written by Nevil Shute and a movie made about an aircraft that sustained hull loss due to metal fatigue. It's called "No Highway in the Sky." It ran on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies years ago. The movie was made in 1951, a year before the Comet entered commercial flight. The book itself was written in 1948.

No Highway in the Sky (a.k.a. No Highway) is a 1951 British black-and-white aviation film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Louis D. Lighton, directed by Henry Koster, that stars James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, Niall MacGinnis, Janette Scott, and Jack Hawkins. The screenplay was written by Oscar Millard, with additional material provided by Alec Coppel.

The film is based on the novel No Highway by Nevil Shute and was one of the first films that depicted a potential aviation disaster involving metal fatigue. Although the film follows Shute's original 1948 novel closely, No Highway in the Sky notably omits references to the supernatural contained in the original novel, including the use of automatic writing to resolve a key element in the original novel's story.

Here's a fan edit:

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Happy anniversary, sort of: the first commercial flight of the de Havilland Comet, 1952 (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves May 2018 OP
If it hadn't been for structural issues with the Comet bluecollar2 May 2018 #1
The Comet may have been a failure, TheMightyFavog May 2018 #2
In the early years of the jet age, we lost on average 1 test pilot per week. Kaleva May 2018 #3

bluecollar2

(3,622 posts)
1. If it hadn't been for structural issues with the Comet
Fri May 4, 2018, 12:10 AM
May 2018

The British aerospace industry might have been more robust over time.

I think the Comet and the Vickers VC10 were two of the most elegant aircraft to fly.

TheMightyFavog

(13,770 posts)
2. The Comet may have been a failure,
Fri May 4, 2018, 12:21 AM
May 2018

But Hawker Siddeley made some tweaks and made the Nimrod, a maritime patrol and AEW aircraft that the RAF used until seven years ago.

Kaleva

(36,147 posts)
3. In the early years of the jet age, we lost on average 1 test pilot per week.
Fri May 4, 2018, 07:29 AM
May 2018

Many pilots would die as engineers tweaked a design in an attempt to solve what was causing fatal crashes.

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