Sharjah Comet
As promised in post 45, I checked with David Mackenzie, the original boss of the Al Mahatta museum. He sent me the following:
This particular aircraft started life as a Mark 2a registered with BOAC as G-AMXA and first flown on 27th August 1953. It was shown at the Farnborough SBAC airshow the following month as the first production aircraft with Rolls/Royce Avon engines. It concluded its flight trials with a convincing demonstration of long range characteristics when John Cunningham covered the 3064 miles from London to Khartoum non stop in 6 ½ hours on the 22nd January 1954. It was the first Comet to go to the Royal Air Force, allocated serial number XK655. In 1955 it was modified at Marshalls of Cambridge to the secret 2R electronic intelligence gathering (ELINT) version, and during its time with 51 Squadron it was based in Cyprus. Known as a “spook” it patrolled low level the sensitive borders of Eastern Bloc countries with experimental surveillance and radar equipment, frequently calling at Sharjah for fuel. Back in England it was employed to do trials for Smiths Instruments and when retired from flying it was sold for £4,000 to the Strathallen collection in Scotland. Sadly, on landing at Strathallen, it caught the starboard undercarriage on a wall, ripping it off completely, but it was quickly repaired for static display. When the StrathallenMuseum closed in 1990 it was broken up and scrapped with only the cockpit section surviving. This changed hands a few times and deteriorated in the process until Tim More of Skysport Engineering Ltd in Bedfordshire rescued it, restored it, and put it on the roof at GatwickAirport in 1995. After spending many more years outside it was returned to Skysport for restoration again before shipping to Sharjah to take its place in the Al Mahatta Aviation Museum as the first Jet Airliner to land at Sharjah.
Thanks David.
Last edited by l.garey; 19th Sep 2007 at 12:10.