Comet - 70 år og to dager siden den fløy -Via Vulcan to the Sky

Fra min korrespondent i Vanse har jeg fått denne:

70th anniversary of Comet Airliner's maiden flight is tomorrow - 27th July Comet 1 prototype (with square windows) at Hatfield, Hertfordshire in October 1949. Public domain photograph from the collections of the Imperial War Museum. The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner. Tomorrow, Saturday 27th July, marks the 70th anniversary of her maiden flight. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at its Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, 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 public debut in 1952, being much faster than propeller-driven aircraft. However, within a year of entering airline service, 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 major 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 The Comet was withdrawn from service and extensively tested.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 of the square windows, 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. Comet 1 on display at the RAF Museum Cosford in Shropshire. (Wiki Commons) DISCOVER MORE ON THE COMET AIRLINER ►