The Comet 4 and Its Competition

BOAC showed its loyalty to the Comet by ordering Comet 4s in 1955, but the

LESSONS LEARNED

Airplane manufacturers learned les­sons from the Comet. All modern airplanes are very strongly built. Their structures (body, wings, tailplane, and everything else) are tested extensively to see how long it takes for cracks to appear. Further tests are made during an aircraft’s working life, to check for any signs of structural failure (some­times called metal fatigue). If inspec­tions show even minute cracks in any part of the structure, airplanes are taken out of service for repair, or they are permanently retired.

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company had to wait until 1958 for these new airplanes to be delivered. That year, Comet 4s began operating passen­ger flights between London and New York. The Comet 4 was bigger than the Comet 1; it was 18.5 feet (5.6 meters) longer and could seat eighty to 100 pas­sengers. Its Rolls-Royce Avon engines were twice as powerful as the De Havilland Ghost engines used in the Comet 1. The Comet 4 cruised at 503 miles per hour (809 kilometers per hour) at 42,000 feet (12,800 meters) and had a longer range than the original Comet. It also had a strengthened fuselage and stronger windows. The Comet 4 proved to be a perfectly safe and easy airplane to fly and travel in.

By this time, however, airlines— especially large airlines in the United States—were lining up to buy new, U. S.-built jet airliners. The Comet had lost its lead in world jet travel to the U. S. Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8. These airplanes were faster and carried more passengers than the Comet, and they sold in much greater numbers.

The Comet, as the world’s first jet airliner, never achieved the success that its designers had hoped for. The Comet airframe was later used as the basis for the British Aerospace Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, first flown in 1967.

SEE ALSO:

• Aerospace Manufacturing

Industry • Aircraft, Commercial

• Aircraft Design • Jet and Jet

Power • Materials and Structures