Comet - The World's First Jet Airliner Comet - The World's First Jet Airliner Comet - The World's First Jet Airliner Comet - The First Jet Airliner Between 1930 and 1950 military aircraft design advanced from propeller driven biplanes to jet powered monoplanes. Civil aviation remained dominated by large propeller driven aircraft until 1949 when de Havilland introduced the world to the age of the jet airliner. Sir Geoffrey de Havilland conceived the idea of the DH106 'Comet' in 1943 and design work began in September 1946. The prototype first flew on 27 July 1949. the jet airliner the jet airliner the jet airliner The De Havilland Comet was the world's first jet airliner Like perhaps no other single technology, the jet engine revolutionized air travel around the world. Unlike the old propeller-driven planes that were powered by piston engines, jet planes could fly at tremendous speeds, thus cutting down travel time. Jet-equipped airplanes also could climb faster and fly higher. Both the U.S.

Air Force and civil aircraft builders found these capabilities attractive in the years after World War II when international contacts stretched across the globe. There were, however, major concerns about transferring jet engine technology to the commercial aviation sector. Airline executives in the post-war era were aware that, although jet engines were simpler than the old piston engines, they also had high operating temperatures that required very expensive metal alloy components that ultimately would affect an aircraft's longevity and reliability. Moreover, jet engines used far greater amounts of fuel. The initially low takeoff speed would also require longer runways. All of this added up to increased costs. As a result, U.S. passenger air carriers did not support the building of jet airliners in the immediate post-war years, and adopted a ï¿½wait-and-seeï¿½ approach before embarking on this risky path. The British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC), the national British carrier, first introduced a commercial jet airliner into service. The 36-seat Comet 1, built by De Havilland, flew for the first time on July 27, 1949. BOAC inaugurated the world's first commercial jet service on May 2, 1952.

Initial flights took passengers from London to Johannesburg in South Africa, with stops in Rome, Beirut, Khartoum (in Sudan), Entebbe (in Kenya), and Livingstone, near Victoria Falls. At the time, the top cruising speed of the most well known piston-engine aircraft, the DC-3, was about 180 miles per hour (290 kilometres per hour). With the Comet, passengers could travel comfortably at 480 miles per hour (772 kilometres per hour), making it a revolutionary leap in air travel. The Comet also provided conditions that contrasted sharply to piston-engine planes: the planes were vibration-free and relatively quiet. Unfortunately, the Comet was the victim of a number of tragic accidents, and BOAC suspended flights within two years. Engineers found that the planes suffered from metal fatigue, especially around rivet holes, due to the need to repeatedly pressurize and depressurize the aircraft. In 1952, Pan American Airways had already put in an order for the new 76-seat Comet 3, but the crashes of the earlier Comet put the contract into doubt. By this time, domestic U.S. companies had begun their own programs to build jet airliners.

Several factors, such as improved jet engines, now convinced these companies to reconsider their initial reluctance to build commercial jet planes. Of all the airlines in the United States, Pan American, which the U.S. government considered its ï¿½chosen instrumentï¿½ to represent the American commercial air fleet abroad, was undoubtedly a pioneer in embracing jet aviation. Juan Trippe, the airlines' legendary chief executive officer, had early on expressed a keen interest in operating a passenger jet service capable of flying nonstop across the North Atlantic. Having seen the bright promise of the British Comet fade, Trippe played off two of the biggest domestic airplane builders, Boeing and Douglas. Both companies vied to appeal to Pan American's needs and offered the Boeing 707 and DC-8, respectively. In October 1955, Trippe signed contracts with both companies to buy 45 of these jets (20 707s and 25 DC-8s).

Exactly two years later, Boeing rolled out the first operational 707, a Boeing 707-120, and on October 26, 1958, amid much fanfare, Pan American inaugurated its New York-London route, ushering in a new era in the history of passenger aviation. On the very first flight, which made a stopover in Newfoundland, there were 111 passengers, the largest number ever to board a single regularly scheduled flight. Coach fares were $272, about the same as one would expect to pay for a piston-engine flight across the Atlantic. At first, BOAC competed hard with Pan American. In fact, in order to pre-empt the Americans, BOAC had rushed ahead and inaugurated its own transatlantic service on October 4, 1958, just three weeks ahead of Pan American. BOAC used the new De Havilland Comet 4, which incorporated improvements to remedy the problems with the older Comet 1. Although BOAC fared quite well, its success was nothing compared to Pan American's.

With its rapidly expanding use of the Boeing 707, especially on the transatlantic route, Pan American began a period of almost unchallenged success in the international airline industry. The airline, for example, was the first to recognize the importance to passengers of non-stop flights on long trips; it negotiated with Boeing for a version of the 707 that could fly for a longer time without refuelling, known as the 707-320.This allowed the airline to introduce true intercontinental service with non-stop London-to-New York flights on August 26, 1959. This was a perfect case of a dominant air carrier playing the lead role in defining the characteristics of a new class of jets that the industry would produce. The 707-320 was eventually adopted by as many as eleven other airlines within a year. Pan Am inaugurated its New York-London route with a Boeing 707 on October 26, 1958 Within the United States, National Airlines became the first to begin jet service, using leased Boeing 707s, on December 10, 1958.

American Airlines offered the first domestic jet service using its own aircraft on January 25, 1959 with a flight from New York to Los Angeles. With this coast-to-coast service, American had a big competitive coup; the two other major domestic U.S. airlines, Trans World Airlines (TWA) and United Airlines, had not anticipated the imminent use of jets for domestic service. TWA quickly scrambled to catch up, and using a single Boeing 707, it joined the coast-to-coast flight market in March 1959. The last minute move helped keep TWA afloat through a difficult period of economic loss. Not all airlines pinned their hopes on the Boeing 707, however. Douglas had unmatched experience in building the best passenger airliners of the world. United Airlines and Delta both began flying the DC-8 passenger jets in September 1959ï¿½latecomers to the domestic jet market precisely because they had depended on Douglas, which introduced jets after Boeing. Eastern Airlines joined them in domestic jet services in January 1960.

Aeroflot began the world's first sustained jet airline service using Tupolev Tu-104 'Camel' jets on an extensive internal route network from the summer of 1955. The Tu-104 saw service until the mid-1970s One of the more unusual aspects of the coming of the jet era was the speed with which airlines internationally adopted these new aircraft. Partly because of Pan American's example, airlines from all over the world replaced piston-engine aircraft with jets at an unprecedented pace. The Soviet national airline Aeroflot was part of this explosion. In fact, Aeroflot held the distinction of offering the world's first regularly scheduled and sustained passenger jet service with its Tupolev Tu-104 aircraft. Aeroflot opened service from Moscow to Irkutsk (in the Soviet far east) in September 1956.

Elsewhere, by 1961, just three years after Pan Am's first jet flight, jets were flying routes over the North and South Atlantic and the Pacific; in the domestic United States, Europe, and East Asia; North-to-South America routes; Europe-to-Africa routes; Europe-to-Australia routes; and even to the Arctic regions. International airlines such as Air France, Lufthansa (Germany), KLM (Netherlands), Iberia (Spain), QANTAS (Australia), SABENA (Belgium), Air India, SAS (Scandinavia), Swissair, El Al (Israel), and JAL (Japan) were all using the Boeing 707, the DC-8, or in lesser numbers, the Corvair CV-880 jet on major international routes. Although many other airlines were the first to offer regular services on various international routes, it was Pan American Airways that set the standards for service in the new jet era.

Pan American's pioneering partnership with Boeing, its ambitious routesï¿½such as its round-the-world jet service inaugurated in October 1959, its flashy advertising campaigns, and its reputation for good service, all made the company a leader and a trendsetter. Jet travel revolutionized air travel throughout the world. For the airlines, jet travel forced them to establish much higher standards of maintenance that required better facilities on the ground and highly trained employees. For passengers, flights meant more comfort, less noise, and most important, less travel time. Once again, as with the introduction of piston engines into civil aviation in the 1920s, a new revolution in technology made the world an even smaller place. Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. First jet makes test flight - Jul 27, 1949 - HISTORY.com First jet makes test flight Share this: First jet makes test flight Author First jet makes test flight URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 1949, the world’s first jet-propelled airliner, the British De Havilland Comet, makes its maiden test-flight in England.

The jet engine would ultimately revolutionize the airline industry, shrinking air travel time in half by enabling planes to climb faster and fly higher. The Comet was the creation of English aircraft designer and aviation pioneer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland (1882-1965). De Havilland started out designing motorcycles and buses, but after seeing Wilbur Wright demonstrate an airplane in 1908, he decided to build one of his own. The Wright brothers had made their famous first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. De Havilland successfully designed and piloted his first plane in 1910 and went on to work for English aircraft manufacturers before starting his own company in 1920. De Havilland Aircraft Company became a leader in the aviation industry, known for developing lighter engines and faster, more streamlined planes. In 1939, an experimental jet-powered plane debuted in Germany. During World War II, Germany was the first country to use jet fighters. De Havilland also designed fighter planes during the war years. He was knighted for his contributions to aviation in 1944.

Following the war, De Havilland turned his focus to commercial jets, developing the Comet and the Ghost jet engine. After its July 1949 test flight, the Comet underwent three more years of testing and training flights. Then, on May 2, 1952, the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC) began the world’s first commercial jet service with the 44-seat Comet 1A, flying paying passengers from London to Johannesburg. The Comet was capable of traveling 480 miles per hour, a record speed at the time. However, the initial commercial service was short-lived, and due to a series of fatal crashes in 1953 and 1954, the entire fleet was grounded. Investigators eventually determined that the planes had experienced metal fatigue resulting from the need to repeatedly pressurize and depressurize. Four years later, De Havilland debuted an improved and recertified Comet, but in the meantime, American airline manufacturers Boeing and Douglas had each introduced faster, more efficient jets of their own and become the dominant forces in the industry. By the early 1980s, most Comets used by commercial airlines had been taken out of service.

Related Videos BBC ON THIS DAY | 2 | 1952: Comet inaugurates the jet age 1952: Comet inaugurates the jet age The world's first ever jet airliner has begun its maiden flight from London to Johannesburg. Crowds cheered as the BOAC Comet G-ALYP took off from London airport at 1512 local time carrying 36 passengers. The De Havilland Comet 1 is regarded as a feather in the cap for British design and innovation and promises to usher in a new era of faster, smoother air travel. The plane's sleek design incorporates its four De Havilland Ghost 50 Mk1 engines inside the wing of the plane. The total journey of nearly 7,000 miles is expected to take 23 hours 40 minutes, allowing for five stops at Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone. Sir Miles Thomas, the operator's chairman, will join the flight at Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia. BOAC's regular flights to Johannesburg on piston-engine Hermes airliners take 27 hours and 55 minutes to reach their destination on a route 1,000 miles shorter than the Comet's.

Because of the length of the journey, the crew will be replaced at Beirut and then at Khartoum. Each passenger on this historic flight will receive a special first flight certificate signed by the pilot of the first part of the flight, Captain AM Majendie. A single fare costs �175 and a return �315 - the same price as for BOAC's piston-engine aircraft. Comet facts Boeing 707 Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 prototype Model 367-80 or "Dash 80". The Boeing 707 was not the first US transport aircraft to be jet-powered; that distinction belonged to the experimental military XC-123A powered assault glider. However, the 707 was the first production American jet airliner that allowed the US to gain the lead in commercial jet transportation. The 707 remained in continuous production from the mid-1950s until 1977 with more than 1,000 aircraft produced. The 707 prototype, the Model 367-80 or "Dash 80", made its inaugural flight on July 15, 1954.

Its main competitor at the time was the British De Havilland Comet, but the 707 had accommodations for approximately four times as many passengers as the original Comet I that had first flown on July 27, 1949—it was also 100 mph faster than the Comet. This, combined with a series of accidents for the Comet, helped establish the 707 in World-Wide service. (One year after the Comet went into service, three aircraft broke up in flight due to metal fatigue. Cracks originating from the window corners caused catastrophic failures.) The Comet 4 was first to open a transatlantic passenger jet service, on October 4, 1958, but this was followed by a Pan American 707 on October 26, 1958 and went on to inaugurate the first round the world jet passenger service on October 10, 1959. Initial orders from the airlines were delayed because they were still flying fairly new piston-powered aircraft that they still needed to recoup their investment from, so the first 29 aircraft were built as KC-13A fuel tankers.

It wasn�t long before the airlines started ordering jets and then a flood of orders came from airlines all over the world, after a large order was placed by Pan American. Production centered on two major series, the 707-120 medium-range versions for up to 181 passengers and the 707-320 long-range versions for 189 passengers. When production ended in 1977, a total of 1,011 Boeing 707 airliners were produced and were operating in every continent of the world. The story of the 707 begins with Boeing trying to develop an improved version of the Model 367 that the Air Force was currently using as the C-97. It was then realized that the performance of the C-97 with existing piston engines and the B-29 wing had reached its limits and that a whole new aerodynamic design was needed. Boeing was looking to develop a commercial variant of the B-47 , but continued to work through the Model 367 or C-97 development line.

The final form was the 80th configuration of the Model 367 and so designated as the Model 367-80. Boeing kept this designation as to not tip off its competitors. Word had a way of getting around in the industry and the 367-80 designation would give the allusion that it was just a further development of the C-97. It wasn�t until the aircraft was unveiled that Boeing designated it as the Model 707. The fuselage of the 707 had the same width as the C-97, but the sides were smoothed out and did not have the pronounced crease. The length of the tubular fuselage remained straight so that sections could be added for increased capacity. The wings and engine pylons were variants of the B-47 and B-52 but were more rigid with pronounced dihedral built in. Panels could be added at the wing roots to increase wing span. A distinctive feature of the 707 was the High Frequency (HF) boom antenna pointing forward at the top of the vertical stabilizer. The horizontal stabilizer also had a pronounced dihedral.

There were two sets of ailerons, inboard and outboard. With the flaps down, both sets of ailerons would operate. With the flaps retracted, only the inboard ailerons would be operated during cruise to dampen lateral control. Spoilers would also function for lateral control and as speed brakes. The flaps were located between the engines so as to not obstruct the jet exhaust. When commercial jets were first introduced, noise was a great problem and some jet airliners were barred from certain airports such as New York�s LaGuardia Airport. Stopping a heavy propellerless airplane was another consideration. Boeing spent $15 million to develop both engine noise suppressors and thrust reverser systems as a solution.1 An early Boeing 707 with JT4 engines, equipped with sound suppressors. The HF antenna on top of the vertical stabilizer was a distinctive feature of the 707. The original Boeing 707 was followed by a series of 707 passenger and cargo variants, with different lengths, weights and engines.

The passenger carrying 707-320B and passenger/cargo 707-320C models were still in production in 1977. Also developed was the short-to-medium-range version known as the Boeing 720 or the 720B with JT3D turbofans . By the end of October 1976, they had flown more than 30 million hours and carried just under 522 million passengers. In 1970 it was still not unusual for passengers to disembark on the airport ramp. Boeing 707 Model 120 Jet Transport The first production airplane of the Boeing 707 commercial jet series made its maiden flight December 20, 1957, with Pan American World Airways putting the airplane into transoceanic service October 26, 1958, and American Airlines following with transcontinental service January 25, 1959.

The prototype jet airliner, built as a private venture by Boeing at a cost of more than $16,000,000, amassed more than 1000 hours in its four years of flight testing, while the first three of the production airplanes used for Civil Aeronautics Administration certification testing raised the overall total to more than 1650 hours. In addition, the new jet transports benefited by the thousands of hours of flight time logged by their military counterpart, the Boeing KC-135 jet multipurpose tanker-transports which went into service in 1957. Including the prototype, there are eight Boeing jet airliners; the others are the 707-120, the 707-120B, the 707-220, the 707-320, the 707-420, the 720 and the 720B. Weighing in at 248,000 pounds as compared with the prototype's 190,000, the 120 is principally intended for continental use.

The 220 is identical in airframe and body size to the 120, but is powered by Pratt & Whitney JT4 turbojet engines, larger and of greater thrust than the JT3. The "B" airplanes use Pratt & Whitney JT3D turbofan engines. SPECIFICATIONS (120): Span 130 ft. 10 in.; Height 42 ft.; Length 144 ft. 6 in.; Engines Four Pratt & Whitney JT3C-6 turbojet, more than 10,000 lb. thrust; Gear tricycle, main undercarriage units, four-wheel trucks, dual nose wheels. PERFORMANCE: Cruise Speed 591 mph; Cruising Altitude 25,000 to 40,000 ft. Boeing 707 Intercontinental Jet Transport The 320 and the 420 are the Intercontinental 707s, which partially fulfill the growth potential Boeing designed into the basic 707 series.

Weighing more than 295,000 pounds, they are 8 feet, 5 inches longer overall than the 120, 220, and 720, have 11 feet 7 inches more wingspan, and 500 square feet of additional wing area. Fuselage diameter, 148 inches, is the same in all models. Only difference between the 320 and 420 is the engines, the former using Pratt & Whitney JT4s and the latter Rolls-Royce "Conways." SPECIFICATIONS INTERCONTINENTAL: Span 142 ft. 5 in.; Height 42 ft.; Length 152 ft. 11 in.; Engines Four Pratt & Whitney JT4 or Rolls Royce Conway turbojets, more than 10,000 Lb, thrust; Gear tricycle, main undercarriage units, four-wheel trucks, dual nose wheels. PERFORMANCE: Cruise Speed 591 mph; Cruising Altitude 25,000 to 40,000 ft.

Boeing 720 Jet Transport Designed to operate profitably in the medium range area, the Boeing 720 combines low cost with excellent operational flexibility. Associated with its capability to operate over existing route segments is the ability of the 720 to utilize present runways and terminal facilities throughout the entire airline system. The 720 offers a high level of safety, ease of maintenance and inspection, long life, minimum structural weight and reliability based on experience and extensive test programs. The seats are mounted on continuous tracks recessed in the floor, allowing use of four, five and six-abreast seating. In less than ten minutes each row of seats and its accompanying overhead service unit can be repositioned or replaced. Windows are spaced at 20-inch intervals to insure an unobstructed view regardless of seat spacing. This flexibility permits a choice of seating combinations ranging from the luxurious four-abreast interior to the six-abreast, 149-passenger tourist arrangement. SPECIFICATIONS: Span 130 ft. 10 in; Length 136ft. 2 in.; Height 41 ft.

6.5 in.; Empty Weight 103,145 Lb.; Engines Four Pratt & Whitney JT3C-7; Fuel Capacity 11,500 gal.; Wing Area 2433 sq. ft. PERFORMANCE: Maximum Speed more than 600 mph; Maximum Range 3300 mi.; Cruising Altitude 15,000 to 40,000 ft. Endnotes: July 15, 1954: Boeing 707 Makes First Flight | WIRED July 15, 1954: Boeing 707 Makes First Flight subscribe 6 months for $5 - plus a FREE Portable Phone Charger. Author: Jason Paur. Jason Paur Date of Publication: 07.15.10. Time of Publication: 12:00 am. 12:00 am July 15, 1954: Boeing 707 Makes First Flight 1954: The Boeing 367-80 makes its first flight from Renton Field southeast of Seattle.

The jet-powered airliner will become the Boeing 707 and usher in the jet age for passenger travel. Boeing was not the first company to produce a jet-powered airliner. But just as Ford’s Model T popularized the automobile despite being a latecomer in the car world, the Boeing 707 would be the airplane to popularize jet travel. Nearly five years before the prototype of the 707 first flew, the British-made de Havilland Comet completed its first flight. The jet was popular thanks to its high speed, but a string of accidents involving the Comet in 1954 forced the company to take the airliners out of service to fix some design flaws. By that time, Boeing was already nearly two years into the development of its own jet airliner. The company flew its first large jet-powered aircraft, the B-47 bomber , in 1947. With the success of the speedy bomber, the company started looking into building a passenger aircraft that could take advantage of the quickly evolving jet-engine technology.

Boeing engineers started work in 1952 on an airplane that would be jointly developed as both a midair refueler for the Air Force, and a passenger-carrying jet for the airlines. The Air Force was the first customer for the airplane. With the accidents of the de Havilland Comet still fresh in people’s minds, commercial airlines continued to rely on piston-powered propeller aircraft such as the Douglas DC-6 and Lockheed Constellation to carry passengers in safe, well-known designs. The new model 367-80 was simply known as the “Dash 80,” and development continued despite the cool reception from the airlines. These days, hundreds of orders were on the books for Boeing’s new 787 before the airplane ever flew. But back in the early ’50s, Boeing had to continue developing the passenger version of the Dash 80 on its own. The company was confident that an airplane flying twice as fast as the propeller airliners of the time would eventually bring in the business to make the investment worthwhile.

A year into flight-testing, Boeing invited representatives from the airline industry and aviation community to Seattle to attend the annual hydroplane races on Lake Washington during the summer of 1955. The Dash 80 was scheduled to make a simple flyby to impress the crowds. But a simple flyby apparently wasn’t enough for Boeing test pilot Alvin “Tex” Johnson. As he approached the lake-shore crowd at low altitude, Johnson gently pulled up on the controls and performed a graceful roll in the airplane. The crowd was in awe as the four-engine airliner completed the maneuver , something usually only seen in airshows performed by aerobatic pilots. Boeing president Bill Allen reprimanded Johnson, but the pilot pointed out the roll was a simple 1-g maneuver and the airplane was never pushed beyond its limits. The pilot continued working for Boeing for many more years. The famous roll in the Dash 80 apparently helped the marketing effort of the new airplane. Pan American World Airways and American Airlines both placed orders for the new 707 by the end of 1955. But Boeing had competition from its old rival Douglas Aircraft, which had introduced a similar-looking jet airliner, the DC-8 .

Both Pan Am and United Airlines placed orders for the DC-8. The two manufacturers were locked in a battle to deliver the new jets. In October 1958, Pan Am made its inaugural jet flight from New York to Paris in a Boeing 707. The swept-wing airliner captured the imagination of the flying public. It would be nearly a year before the DC-8 would enter service. Boeing won the race to enter service first and, along with Pan Am, became synonymous with the jet age. The original Dash 80 never flew with paying passengers. Instead the airplane continued to serve as a test aircraft into the 1960s until it was acquired by the Smithsonian Institution. The prototype aircraft can now be seen on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport near Washington, D.C. The Boeing 707 would go on to serve almost all the major airlines of the world, as well as serving numerous roles in the military, including the first purpose-built Air Force One for presidential use. By 1991, when production finally stopped, Boeing had turned out 1,010 of the 707s.

The Boeing 707 continues to fly active duty as the KC-135 tanker and the E-3 AWACS in the U.S. Air Force, as well as other air forces around the world. It also serves some smaller cargo airlines around the world and is still flying passengers in Iran. Actor and pilot John Travolta owns a former Qantas Airlines 707 and flies it from his Florida home. Source: Various Photos: The prototype of the Boeing 707 was the 367-80, better known as the Dash 80. The plane’s aircraft registration number was N70700. Courtesy Boeing May We Never Forget the First Jet Airliner, The De Havilland Comet | Motherboard May We Never Forget the First Jet Airliner, The De Havilland Comet Written by 28 July 2016 // 11:30 PM AEST Copy This URL On July 27, 1949, the world quite abruptly became a very small place.

The new scale, which drew together cities and coastlines that had for millennia existed on basically separate planets, came courtesy of the de Havilland Comet , the first commercial jet aircraft to enter production. With its pressurized cabin, it could travel as high as 42,000 feet, and, courtesy of four turbojet engines offering 22,000 Newtons of thrust each, it cruised at 460 miles per hour. The next best thing until the Comet arrived was the propeller-driven DC-3, which could hit 250 mph, at best. Air travel in its 1930s and 40s infancy was characterized by short but exhausting flights that took a long time (relatively) and were frequently marred by gnarly weather characteristic of lower altitudes. At the time, jet engines were thought to be too inefficient and fuel hungry and too unreliable to be seriously considered for commercial aviation. Nonetheless, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, whose company had gotten its start producing biplanes, took it as a challenge.

In 1945, de Havilland was awarded a contract from the UK government to design and produce a mailplane capable with a pressurized cabin capable of transatlantic flight and cruising speeds of at least 400 mph. In 1945, before a design team had even been formed at de Havilland, the British Overseas Airways Corporation made an order for 10 turbojet aircraft. The Comet began regular service in 1952 and, by 1953, BOAC was flying nine Comets per week from London to distant locales such as Tokyo, Singapore, and Johannesburg. More airlines placed orders. Then it all went wrong, at least for a time. There were two fatal Comet accidents in 1953, one of which involved an aircraft disintegrating in mid-air while passing through a thunderstorm. In 1954, another Comet crashed after takeoff from Rome following an explosive decompression. The planes were grounded and several inquiries took place, with the major finding being that the aircraft's hull was too weak to deal with flight stresses that were still poorly understood at the time of the plane's development.

Many of the Comet 1s were scrapped, to be later replaced by a more robust version, the Comet 2. According to Comet! The World's First Jet Airliner , the final Comet 4 left service in 1997. It's operator then was the UK's Royal Aircraft Establishment, which used it to collect aeronautical data. De Havilland Comet Your browser does not support inline frames or is currently configured not to display inline frames. De Havilland Comet The Comet's story began in 1929, when an officer of the Royal Air Force named Frank Whittle proposed powering an airplane with a gas turbine engine. Rather than applying power to a propeller, this engine would force exhaust gases out the rear of the engine, generating enough force to drive the aircraft forward. Whittle himself described his idea as "something like a giant vacuum cleaner; it sucks air at the front and blows it out at the back." Eleven years of research and experimentation produced Britain's first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor. By the end of World War II, only one manufacturer had experience building both jet engines and aircraft. The plane was the Vampire, a fighter built by de Havilland.

By 1952, the de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jetliner went into service and, by all appearances, Great Britain was destined to dominate the changing world of commercial aviation. The Comet was an immediate sensation, for obvious reasons. Trains and ships were still the dominant means of travel in 1952. Air travel was still a novelty for most travellers. Since World War II meant the temporary suspension of work into newer and faster commercial aircraft, the airliners of the early 1950's were little changed from those of the late 1930's. Even the Douglas DC-7C, the first plane to offer regular non-stop transatlantic service, was little more than a 15 year-old design that had been stretched to carry more passengers and fuel. It's 3,400 horsepower engines, each with 72 cylinders, were noisy and produced unpleasant vibrations inside the passenger compartment. Imagine the surprise then, when the de Havilland Comet made its appearance in 1952. It had no obvious means of propulsion; it's four jet engines were built inside the wings.

Rather than the usual sound of piston engines, people heard an unfamiliar howling sound as the Comet rolled down the runway. Instead of a 40 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, the Comet could fly from London to Johannesburg , via Rome, Beirut and Khartoum, in 23 hours, at speeds up to 500 MPH. Rather than lumbering through storms, the Comet flew above the weather, eight miles up in the stratosphere. Its air-conditioned, fully pressurized cabin provided passengers with a quiet, smooth ride previously unheard of in commercial aviation. During its first year of operation, the Comet carried 28,000 passengers a total of 104 million miles. By May 1953, de Havilland had firm orders for 50 Comets from the world's airlines and was negotiating for 100 more. The Comet was such a sensation the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret flew one from London to Rhodesia. The Comet was an unqualified success and, by all appearances, Great Britain was poised to dominate commercial aviation for the next forty years.

As the editor of American Aviation Magazine said, "Whether we like it or not, the British are giving the U.S. a drubbing in jet transport." And then the accidents began. The first two accidents, in 1953, occurred on takeoff. In the first, the plane failed to become airborne. The accident was blamed on pilot error and no one was killed. The second accident, however, left no survivors and appeared to be caused by a design flaw in the airplane. A modification would be made to the wings that allowed for greater lift at low speeds. A third accident occurred as a Comet crashed on takeoff from Calcutta. This accident was blamed on turbulence and no fault was found with the plane. The public's confidence in the Comet was undiminished - until January 10, 1954. A BOAC Comet departing from Rome climbed to 26,000 feet, en route to its assigned altitude of 36,000 feet. Captain Alan Gibson began to radio a message to another BOAC plane behind him. "Did you get my . . ." Silence. Seconds later, fishermen near the island of Elba saw the remains of the Comet plunge into the sea.

The Comets were grounded while de Havilland and the British government searched for the cause of the disaster. Unfortunately, with the plane in thousands of pieces beneath 500 feet of water, the investigators had little to go on. Speculation ranged from sabotage to clear-sky turbulence to an explosion of vapour in an empty fuel tank. While the Royal Navy utilized sonar, divers and underwater television cameras to salvage as many parts of the plane as possible, the investigators utilized what limited information they had and recommended 50 modifications to the remaining Comets that would, they hoped, correct whatever problem had destroyed the BOAC flight. Basically, they were guessing. The modifications included the installation of shields between the engines and fuel tanks, reinforced fuel lines and new smoke detectors. Less than two months later, with the modifications in place, the Comets again took to the skies. The engineers crossed their fingers, hoping their shotgun approach had found the real culprit. It hadn't. Sadly, only two weeks after resuming service, another BOAC Comet disappeared. The plane had departed Rome on its way to Cairo and was climbing to its assigned altitude of 35,000 feet when, suddenly, radio contact ceased. There were no eye-witnesses.

Once again, the Comets were grounded. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy had succeeded in salvaging about two-thirds of the Comet from the first disappearance. The wreckage suggested that the cabin itself had failed. There were traces of blue on the vertical stabilizer or tail of the plane. Chemical analysis showed them to have come from the seats, suggesting that some force had hurled the contents of the cabin against the tail. Paint from the fuselage was found on the left wing. The conclusion was inescapable - explosive decompression of the cabin. But why? How had the designers failed? The Comet was the most thoroughly tested passenger plane ever built. The engineers at de Havilland knew the Comet would have to withstand changes in pressurization that no piston-powered airliner had ever encountered. They had built a decompression chamber to test the cabin of the new airliner. They manipulated pressures inside and outside the cabin to simulate conditions the Comet would experience in the thin, cold air at 38,000 feet. One test cabin was subjected to this test 2,000 times and passed with flying colors. After all this testing, why were the planes blowing apart in actual flight?

The Ministry of Civil Aviation decided upon a unique test to find out. They built a tank large enough to hold one of the grounded Comets. The wings protruded from water-tight slots in the sides of the tank. Then the tank and cabin were flooded with water. The water pressure inside the cabin would be raised to eight and a quarter pounds per square inch to simulate the pressure encountered by a Comet at 35,000 feet. It would be held there for three minutes and then lowered while the wings were moved up and down by hydraulic jacks. The hydraulic jacks would simulate the flexing that naturally occurs in aircraft wings during flight. This process continued non-stop, 24 hours a day. This torture test continued until the cabin in the tank had been subjected to the stresses equivalent to 9,000 hours of actual flying. Suddenly, the pressure dropped. The water was drained and the fuselage examined. The investigators were horrified to find a split in the fuselage. It began with a small fracture in the corner of an escape hatch window and extended for eight feet. Metal fatigue! Had the Comet not been under water, the cabin would have exploded like a bomb.

Several months later the results of this test were corroborated when an Italian trawler recovered a large section of cabin roof from the sea. A crack had started in the corner of a navigation window on top of the fuselage. Like the escape hatch window of the test Comet, it had square corners. The square design of the windows was the major flaw that doomed the Comet. Strangely, the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration, predecessor to the FAA, had misgivings about the square windows of the Comet several years earlier and refused to grant it an air-worthiness certificate so it could fly in the United States. The bottom line? Aside from the square windows, de Havilland's testing of the new plane while still in its design phase was inadequate. They had limited the new cabin to static testing alone, meaning they had subjected the cabin to pressurization, but neglected to add in the effects of motion, such as flexing of the airframe and wings. No one at de Havilland had anticipated the effects on the airframe of an airliner that would climb to altitude as quickly as the jet-powered Comet. Like the Titanic forty years earlier, the Comet suffered design flaws that sealed its fate before its first flight.

It would be four full years before the Comet would be re-engineered sufficiently to once again take to the skies. But by then it was too late. The Boeing 707 had already gone into service. The newer 707 could carry twice as many passengers as the Comet and had a greater range. The word's airlines began ordering 707s and the Comet, along with its maker, were doomed to oblivion. The 707 went on to become one of the safest, most successful airliners of all time. Dimensions (Comet 1)

Question: Which company made The Comet, the world’s first passenger jet airliner?
Answer: DE HAVILAND