de Havilland Comet
de Havilland · United Kingdom · first flew 1949 · airliner
The de Havilland Comet was the world's first jet airliner, with four turbojets buried in the wing roots and a clean, slender 1950s airframe.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | Low-mounted, swept |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 4 × turbojet, embedded-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | 28.35 m fuselage |
| T — Tail | Conventional |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- Four engines buried in the wing roots
- Clean wing with flush root intakes
- Rounded windows after the 1950s rebuild
Look for the four engines buried in the wing roots with intakes flush at the root rather than in pods, a slim fuselage of clear 1950s lineage, and the rounded windows that replaced the original Comet 1's square ones after the fatigue rebuild.
Specifications
- The de Havilland Comet has a length of 28.35 m (93 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 35.1 m (115 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 850 km/h (528 mph).
- Typical crew: 4.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
The Comet 1 first flew in 1949 and entered BOAC service in 1952, but two catastrophic in-flight breakups in 1954 were traced to metal fatigue cracking from stress concentrations at the square windows, a landmark in aviation engineering. The redesigned Comet 4 first flew in 1958 and opened the first transatlantic jet passenger service that October.
Variants
The original Comet 1 (28.4 m) was followed after the fatigue-crash redesign by the definitive, longer Comet 4 of 1958 (33.99 m), which flew the first transatlantic jet services.
Where you'll see it
BOAC flew Comets from London, retiring the Comet 4 from scheduled service in 1965, after which civil and military variants soldiered on for decades. Examples are preserved at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum at London Colney, RAF Museum Cosford and the British Airliner Collection at Duxford.
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