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What Was The First Commercial Jet Airliner To Take Flight?

Whilst commercial airlines have required steel aircraft hangars of varying sizes since the start of the 20th century, one of the biggest transportation revolutions came with the development of the jet airliner.


With the development of the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and Tupolev Tu-104 throughout the 1950s, the world, as philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously put it, became a global village as entire content could be crossed in a matter of hours and drastically increased the need for hangar capacity.


Whilst commercial flights were possible before this, the reliance on propellers limited the capacity of many aircraft to travel quickly and efficiently, with the notable exception of the Tupolev Tu-114.


The aircraft that changed everything in this regard would feature unparalleled innovation at the time but also had the worst possible timing when it came to its technical issues so the company could not reap the rewards of the world it created.


Arc Of The Comet


Following the end of the Second World War, the end of which saw the development of the first generation of jet fighters such as the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star, Messerschmitt Me 262 and the de Havilland DH100 Vampire, thoughts turned to how this new generation of jet engines would fit in a post-war world.


The de Havilland Comet (DH.106) was developed largely as a challenge, in order to defy what the British company saw as misconceptions that the engines they used were too unreliable and consumed too much fuel to be used in this way.


In what was a rare step at the time, both the engine and the airframe were developed at the same time, as no other manufacturer of turbojet engines had a design that fit the needs of a passenger jet.


The Comet would be ready for research, development and testing in 1947, the first prototype was completed in 1949, and it would first enter commercial service in 1952, notable for featuring its turbine engines remarkably close together compared to more contemporary jet engines to reduce drag.


Three Tragic Strikes


The attractive nature of the plane and the novelty of passenger flight should have placed the Comet, de Havilland and the United Kingdom into the centre of the aviation world, but ultimately a few notable flaws would appear at perhaps the worst possible time.


The first problems were found just ten months after the commercial launch of the Comet, when the plane failed to launch from Ciampino Airport in Rome, followed by a similar crash in Karachi that became the first-ever fatal crash for a jet airliner. Both of these crashes would inspire the 1960 film Cone of Silence.


Following this, three fatal accidents in 1953 and 1954 grounded the plane for several years, as the initial issues that had been blamed on pilot error were the result of metal fatigue and design defects due to the lack of knowledge surrounding pressurised cabins.


Eventually, following four years of redevelopment, the Comet 4 would resume commercial flights, but its legacy is stained by tragedy, and other manufacturers have noted that the tragedies de Havilland experienced would have happened to them.



 
 
 

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