The History of the Comet
The DH. 106 Comet prototype took
off from Hatfield
on 27 July 1949.
Compared with the propeller-driven airliners of
the day, the Comet
appeared incredibly sleek and streamlined. The Comet 1 was powered by
four 2,018 kg thrust
de Havilland Ghost turbojets buried in the wing roots. There was
accommodation for 36
passengers in two cabins and pressurization enabled it to fly at levels
over 12,000m
(40,000 feet).
BOAC took delivery of 10 Comets and the first
passenger service
opened to Johannesburg on 2 May 1952. Other airlines were intensely
interested but, except
for Air France, UAT and Canadian Pacific , were content to wait and see
what happened.
What they discovered was that once passengers experienced the
absolutely smooth and almost
silent flight through the dark blue sky of the stratosphere and
found they could
arrive at their destination in about half the time they simply did not
want to fly in
lurching, noisy piston engined airliners thundering and vibrating
through storm clouds for
twice as long. Consequently for a while Britain led the world in jet
airliner production.
On 2 May 1953 exactly one year to the day after
their introduction a
Comet broke up in flight near Calcutta. In January 1954 another
disintegrated and fell
into the sea near Elba. After modifications the Comet was put back into
service, but less
than three weeks later, on 8 April 1954, a third Comet broke up and the
type was withdrawn
from service.
It was eventually discovered their fuselages had
exploded whilst
climbing up to cruising height, weakened by the fatigue of repeated
pressurization and
depressurization. The aircraft whose wreckage was discovered had begun
to crack at the
corner of one of the ADF aerial cut-outs, and another tested on the
ground burst open at
the corner of a window.
It took de Havilland four years before they
reappeared as builders
of jet aircraft and in the meantime Boeing, Douglas and Lockheed had
overtaken them in
design and had captured the bulk of the world's markets.
Comet 2s, already under construction were
modified and went to the
RAF. Work went ahead on the Rolls-Royce Avon powered Comet 4 with
longer fuselage, seats
for up to 81, and additional, wing mounted, fuel tanks.The redesigned
Comet 4, of which
BOAC ordered 19, went into service on the 4 October 1958 on the North
Atlantic route
between London and New York. Subsequently 74 Comet 4s in various
configurations were sold
but the unnecessary hiatus crippled the program which should have run
to 1000
aircraft. The death knell for the Comet on the prestige high
density high speed
routes was sounded only one month after the Comet 4 had started
operations, by the
introduction of the superlative Boeing 707 jet airliner.
In all, 20 Comets crashed between 1952 and 1971
taking the lives of
almost 500 people.
Newspaper Articles on the Crash of G-ALYP "Yoke Peter" on 10 January 1954
This page is copyright © and has been produced from family research material collected by CAROL JUDKINS, John's Grand Niece.
Created 12 July 1998
Modified 13 August 2005