Comet 2
Having watched the thread with great interest, I thought I'd add my two pennorth if you are interested.
The first two aircraft were originally designated T2s (XK669 and XK670) and were delivered to Lyneham in June 56. these were quickly followed by eight C2s with a beefed up floor. XK671, 695, 696, 697, 698, 699, 715 and 716.
By today's standards they were pretty primitive, no reverse thrust and the only pilot interpreted nav aids were two coffee grinder ADFs and a fairly early cloud radar which could pick up islands and coastlines. No VORs - there weren't any in the UK and no DME, just NDBs. The Nav had Gee Mk3, a sextant and an API. Most instrument landings were off a GCA. But straight up to about FL350ish and then drift up to FL450 by the TOD with a .74M cruise.
Remember no upper airways and the ony traffic up there was military jet. Not even the 707 was around in Europe in the late 50s. The captains were all experienced piston Transport guys and all the 2nd pilots had done at least a tour on jets. Originally we had four co-pilots on strength to cope with captain wastage (Comet only lifed at 5 years in the early days) and about 21 2nd pilots who were not "catted" on type. In other words, any hands on flying was purely a captain's decision.
However we had THREE Meteor 7s on 216 for the 2nd pilots to fly in our spare time and to maintain our jet IRs. Comet routes, apart from the bread and butter stuff to Changi and Adelaide was pretty well world wide. Happy days of a big pink map.