History of failures of the DeHavillard Comet 1

[PeterNSteinmetz]

Interesting history of the first commercial jet-liner.

The De Havilland Comet: A Pioneer with a Fatal Flaw

This article discusses the story of the design of the de Havilland Comet, the first jet-powered airliner. It looks into why the two high-profile crashes occurred, and how this was fixed.

aeroxplorer.com

 

[MuseChaser]

The author of that article is/was 18 years old. Kudos to the youth. He doth restoreth a bit of faith in our future.

 

[Winthrop]

Whether the VC-10, the Hawker Siddeley Trident or even the de Havilland Comet, England took some interesting risks in airliner design. The American designs like the 707, DC-8 and Convair 880 are decidedly less interesting.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Whether the VC-10, the Hawker Siddeley Trident or even the de Havilland Comet, England took some interesting risks in airliner design. The American designs like the 707, DC-8 and Convair 880 are decidedly less interesting.

Less interesting, but the 707 and DC-8 survived and are still flying to this day.

 

[Winthrop]

Less interesting, but the 707 and DC-8 survived and are still flying to this day.

I have fond memories of the 707 and DC-8 as a child. What I would give to be invited to the cockpit of one now!

Imagine the 707s will soldier on for a while in the military. The Comet in its Nimrod iteration made it to 2011 and the VC-10 until 2013.