A personal reminiscence: in 1953 at 16 I flew to Singapore for school holidays. outward was on G-ALYU, which I always understood was the one later tested to destruction at Farnborough. I read somewhere it blew up about 1,000 hours after when I flew on it. I returned on G-AMAV, a CP 1A, a type not often mentioned. My memory is that it was a 44 seater cf the 1's 36 seats - anybody confirm this?
I have a poor photo of the outward Comet 1 at Rangoon (refuelling stop).
My mother was a senior ground stewardess for Mansfields (BOAC's GHA) at Kallang - she took the job to earn my fare - and she told me the same story about the 'recovery' of the outlying Comets - flown back unpressurised at lower altitudes. Goodness knows how many refuelling stops - the great disadvantage of the Comet 1 as a pax was the short sectors; take off up like a fighter, to over 40,000 ft as I recall, then down like a stone to the next call. I was shattered when I got to S'pore.
Another story from my mother was that Comet pilots who had scrapes (particularly the tail bumper) were Yorked - demoted to the York freighter service. I remember a stewardess on the outward Comet showing me their freight: trays of day old chicks kept warm in the galley - yes, genuine freight for a Singapore battery farm. And radio isotopes in wing tip containers.