DALLAS – Today in Aviation, the Comet 1 prototype took to the skies for the first time from Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, UK, in 1949. The de Havilland DH.106 Comet was to be the world’s first commercial jet airliner.
The aircraft featured an aerodynamically clean design with four de Havilland Ghost turbojet engines buried in the wing roots, a pressurized cabin, and large square windows. For the era, it offered a relatively quiet, comfortable passenger cabin and was commercially promising at its debut in 1952.
Within a year of entering airline service, complications began to appear, with three Comets being lost due to catastrophic in-flight break-ups. Two of these read more ⇒
Source:: “Airways Magazine”