3D model
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A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-APDB, a de Havilland DH.106 Comet 4 delivered to BOAC in September 1958, which on 4 October 1958 flew the first eastbound transatlantic jet passenger service, New York to London in 6 hours 12 minutes, then flew for Malaysian Airways as 9M-AOB from 1965 and for Dan-Air from 1969 until its last flight, into Duxford on 12 February 1974, after 36,269 hours: BOAC’s 1958 scheme with a white upper fuselage, a navy window band edged in gold that sweeps over the flight-deck glazing and the nose cap, gold ‘COMET 4’ titles behind the flight deck, a large navy ‘B·O·A·C’ above the wing, a navy fin with a white Speedbird, white bands either side of ‘G-APDB’ and a small Union flag, white pinion tanks with a navy and gold band and ‘B·O·A·C’ titles, and natural metal lower fuselage, wings and tail, as it is displayed at IWM Duxford. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.2 MB)
Data plate
Specification
- First flight27 July 1949
- Built114
- Top speed503 mph
- Engine4 × Rolls-Royce Avon 524 turbojets, 10,500 lb thrust each
- Crew4 flight crew, with up to 81 passengers
- Wingspan35 m
- Length33.99 m
- Height8.99 m
- In service1952–1997
- RoleLong-range jet airliner
- Makerde Havilland Aircraft Company at Hatfield, Britain
- UK collections6
First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (1A/2/4C); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Comet 4 modelled here.
History
The Comet 4
The Comet grew out of the wartime Brabazon Committee, which in 1943 set out the airliners Britain would need after the war. Geoffrey de Havilland’s team at Hatfield turned one of its outline requirements into the first jet airliner: a slim, pressurised fuselage for thirty-six passengers, a moderately swept wing, and four de Havilland Ghost engines buried in the wing roots. John Cunningham flew the prototype, G-ALVG, from Hatfield on 27 July 1949, his thirty-second birthday. On 2 May 1952 BOAC’s Comet 1 G-ALYP left London for Johannesburg on the world’s first scheduled jet passenger service, and the Comet halved journey times on the Empire routes while cruising at nearly 500 mph above the weather. Airlines in France, Canada, Japan and the United States placed orders.
Then the Comet began to fall out of the sky. G-ALYP broke up over the sea off Elba on 10 January 1954, and on 8 April G-ALYY was lost off Naples. The fleet was grounded, and at Farnborough the Royal Aircraft Establishment pressure-cycled a complete fuselage in a water tank until it split open after the equivalent of about 3,000 flights. Metal fatigue had begun at the corner of a cut-out in the cabin roof, where the stress was far higher than anyone had calculated. The inquiry’s findings changed how every pressurised aircraft has been designed since, but the Comet’s lead was gone. De Havilland redesigned the structure with thicker skins and rounded window openings, and the RAF took the strengthened Comet 2s for Transport Command.
The Comet 4, a larger and longer-ranged development of the Comet 3, flew on 27 April 1958 with four Rolls-Royce Avons, pinion fuel tanks on the wing leading edges and seats for up to 81 passengers. On 4 October 1958 BOAC opened the first transatlantic jet passenger services, three weeks ahead of Pan Am’s Boeing 707s. The 707 and the DC-8 were bigger, faster and cheaper to run, and the Comet 4 found its market elsewhere: with BEA and Olympic as the short-span, stretched Comet 4B, with airlines in South America, the Middle East and Africa, and as the Comet 4C, which combined the 4B’s fuselage with the long-span wing. Dan-Air built up the largest Comet fleet from airlines’ cast-offs and flew the last passenger services in 1980. In all 114 Comets were built, and the type lived on as the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft. The last Comet to fly, the 4C XS235 Canopus, made its final flight from Boscombe Down in 1997.
This airframe
Comet 4 G-APDB
G-APDB, construction number 6403, was the second Comet 4 for BOAC and was delivered in September 1958. On 4 October 1958 Captain Tom Stoney flew it out of New York’s Idlewild with BOAC’s managing director Basil Smallpeice on board, and it reached London 6 hours 12 minutes later, opening the first jet passenger service across the Atlantic in that direction. BOAC flew it until 1965, when it went to Malaysian Airways as 9M-AOB. Dan-Air bought it in 1969, restored its British registration and flew it on holiday charters until its last revenue flight, from Alicante to Teesside, on 12 November 1973. Dan-Air gave it to the East Anglian Aviation Society, and on 12 February 1974 it made its final flight, a short hop into Duxford, having flown 36,269 hours and 15,733 landings, more hours than any other Comet. It stood outside in Dan-Air colours for many years before being restored to its 1958 BOAC scheme for the Duxford Aviation Society’s British Airliner Collection. The model shows it as it is displayed at IWM Duxford today: a white upper fuselage, a navy window band edged in gold that sweeps over the flight-deck glazing and the nose cap, gold “COMET 4” titles behind the flight deck, a large navy “B·O·A·C” above the wing, a navy fin with a white Speedbird, white bands either side of “G-APDB” and a small Union flag, white pinion tanks with a navy and gold band, and natural metal beneath.
Where to see one
In the gazetteer
The gazetteer records the Comet 4 in 6 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.