Very well done, I thought. Having Bill Gunston on the program ensured at
least some good sense and deep knowledge, as did having recollections from
pilots and engineers who were there at the time.
Just two gripes: it's all very well saying that the Americans were miles
behind, and there was plenty of time for full pressure tests etc and still
be first into the Jet Airliner business. But that's with the benefit of
hindsight, which is always 20/20.
And I find it hard to believe that a designer of RE Bishop's calibre would
allow a major design change - riveting the window surrounds instead of
'Reduxing' them - without checking what effect the drilling of hundreds of
extra holes would have on the structure.
It was also interesting to note that the prototype (the one with
single-wheel main gear) had leading edge slats, which were deleted on the
production machines. I wonder if that's why the wing leading edge on these
early Comets was wrong shaped, leading to the two 'over rotated' take off
crashes? BTW, did you note the clouds of concrete dust as the prototype took
off? The Hatfield runway was still new then - it was a post war addition.
Only broken up a couple of years ago :~(
I must also take issue with something Bill Gunston said - "they always come
unglued, DH aircraft". He was referring to the period between the end of the
war and the Comet disasters - and I can only think of the DH110 in flight
break-up at Farnborough that fits that bill. I don't think Vampires or
Venoms were prone to it (or indeed the Chippy, though that's DHC) - you have
to go back to the pre-war 'Flamingo' to find a 'weak' DH aeroplane. The
biplanes were strong, and all post-Comet DHs were as well (125, Trident,
146).
SSD