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de Havilland Comet

The world's first commercial jet airliner

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de Havilland Comet

charner1963 · CC0

The de Havilland Comet was the world's first jet-powered commercial airliner, entering service in 1952.[1] It featured four turbojet engines buried in the wings and a pressurised cabin for up to 36 passengers.[2][3] The Comet's design pioneered many systems new to civil aviation, including irreversible powered flight controls.[4]

How it changed

The Comet cut flight times dramatically, with a London to Tokyo schedule of 36 hours versus 86 hours for piston aircraft.[5] Passengers experienced quiet, vibration-free flight, a novel sensation compared to piston-engined airliners.[6] The investigation led to the introduction of "fail-safe" design standards for aircraft structures.[7] The Comet's cockpit layout was later licensed by Sud-Est for the Caravelle.[8]

During the initial twelve months of commercial operation, the Comet transported thirty thousand passengers.[9] Profitability for the aircraft was achievable when the proportion of occupied seats reached 43 percent.[9] No commercial aircraft before the Comet had operated with such high cabin pressurisation and at such elevated speeds.[10] Hawker Siddeley adapted the Comet 4's design to create the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft.[8]

What the maker and period sources say

A 1934 NASA Technical Report described an earlier de Havilland "Comet" racer as a low-wing cantilever monoplane with stressed-skin construction.[11] That report noted the racer's designers used wooden planking for the skin to reduce weight, with thickness reaching over half an inch in high-stress areas.[11] The 1934 report stated that the racer's cockpit was placed well aft to minimise drag, sacrificing forward visibility for speed.[11]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Davies and Birtles 1999, p. 31.; Davies and Birtles 1999, p. 34.; McNeil 2002, p. 39.; "On This Day: Comet inaugurates the jet age." BBC News, 2 May 1952. Retrieved 26 April 2012.; Cookman, Aubrey O. Jr. "I Rode The First Jet Airliner." Popular Mechanics, July 1952, pp. 90–94. Retrieved 26 April 2012.; Jackson 1988, pp. 173–174. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Birtles 1970, p. 124.; Winchester 2004, p. 109. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Francis 1950, p. 99.; Francis 1950, p. 99.; Francis 1950, pp. 100–101. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Abzug and Larrabee 2002, pp. 80–81.; Darling 2001, p. 2. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Jet Air-Routes", 1 May 1953, p. 547 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Walker 2000, p. 69.; Francis 1950, p. 100. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Milestones in Aircraft Structural Integrity", ResearchGate; "Aircraft Accident Report AAR8903: Aloha Airlines, Flight 243, Boeing 737-200, N73711", NTSB, 14 June 1989 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Motem 1990, p. 143.; Darling 2001, p. 96. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Walker 2000, p. 25. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "De Havilland Comet" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Comet Engineering: The Performance of Airframe, Engines, and Equipment in Operational Service." Flight International, 1 May 1953, p. 551. Retrieved 26 April 20; "Comet Engineering: The Performance of Airframe, Engines, and Equipment in Operational Service." Flight International, 1 May 1953, p. 551. Retrieved 26 April 20; "Comet Engineering: The Performance of Airframe, Engines, and Equipment in Operational Service." Flight International, 1 May 1953, p. 551. Retrieved 26 April 20 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Internet Archive scan: "NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 19930090511: The De Havilland "Comet" long-range airplane (British) : a low-wing cantilever monoplane" (1934). facts only; machine OCR of the scan. archive.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article De Havilland Comet (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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