Mexicana Comet.
 

It looks as if Mexicana will soon be no more. Doing some digging on Mexicana's past I came across this; a good read. I see that bits of Nimrod live on in the Boeing Museum.

http://www.dhaetsa.org.uk/dhaets/doc...estoration.pdf

Fantastic work going on there and I for one would love to see that take to the air again, a shame it wont.

Ahh nostalgia.. Mexicana aircraft were very rare visitors to London Airport, but I logged XA-NAR heading there over my parents house on 23rd June, 1961.

I saw one at Mexico City airport in August 1980. I wondered at the time if it was XA-NAT. Would that have been right?

Laurence

Thanks evansb. Where was that taken and when?
I recorded it as "light blue".

Laurence

Never mind the demise of Mexicana [sad though that is for those concerned], what a stunningly beautiful aircraft! The Comet 4s are still so aesthetically pleasing sixty years after they were designed! Forget 'buses and boeings!!
H49

Hi Helen, again! Our son did his apprenticeship at Farnborough and worked on XV814 as an instruments and electrics fitter. 20 years later he still thinks the Comet is tops. Sadly, the one he worked on was broken up and he never even got a piece as a souvenir, but there is a framed coloured piccy of it (courtesy Mum and Dad) in his office.

One of the best Comets I saw was SA-R7 at Hatfield in 1962. It was just off the production line for (I believe) the King of Saudi Arabia. Certainly beat the pants of current biz jets!

And I remember them coming off the production line at Hawarden in the same factory where Airbus wings are made today. From home - ten miles away - you could hear them doing high power ground runs. One of my neighbours, who worked at "Dee 'Av's", has a stainless steel clothes line made from an offcut Comet control cable!

There are two members here that have flown the sistership Comet to the one at KPAE. BelArgUS and myself ferried it from ABQ to ORD back around 1977 or there abouts.

The first time I went to Heathrow, saw a line of BEA 4Bs next to a line of the corporation's Vanguards.
Red square livery of course, along side the (then under construction), Terminal One.
Magic. :ok:

There are some good Comet pics on the Air Britain site. This one, by an ex-ATC colleague of mine, freaked me out... Looks much better in original BOAC colours:

De Havilland DH.106 Comet 4, G-APDB, BOAC Cunard

Here's one of a Mexicana Comet:
De Havilland DH.106 Comet 4C, XA-NAR, Mexicana (MX / MXA)

I was never lucky enough to get onboard a "live" one but it must have been a noisy blighter in the cabin??

I flew in one to Malta in 1967 but as I'd only flown in a jet once before (707) I didn't have much experience to go by. It seemed very comfortable to me. I managed to get up-front and that was a bit cramped..

Flew on a couple of -4B's during summer flights week whilst at Hamble - one to Madrid with Capt New on G-ARGM, the other to PMI with Capt Blackwood on G-APMG.

Palma the was where the current Military base is, but in those days it was TASSA DC-3.6,7's Aviaco Carvairs ets.

In see their ghosts every time I go there these days!!

omet memories
 

I flew in G-APMG Turnhouse to Heathrow 1967 and on to Brussels in Trident G-ARPI (later victim of the Staines crash). Returned in Sabena 727-100 OO-STB then 'MG again back to EDI.

Great memories. Please keep 'em coming!

In response to I.garey, the photo in post #5 is Comet 4C cn 6424, temporary registration G-AOVU, taken at Hatfield, England, in November 1959. Sad about Mexicana's demise. The carrier was flying Mexico City to Calgary recently, heard them several times on the freq. Professional gents.

Any guesses on the identity and type of that tail sporting an ensign on the tail in the background?

Here is another beautiful Mexicana Comet, circa 1968:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_iKdrOeTCljo/ST...T+(MD)(LR).jpg

EvansB:

I'm quite certain that's a DHC-4A Caribou tailfin sticking up above the Comet. I'm also fairly certain it was CF-OYE, S/N 40, DHC's demomstrator for some years. As the flag is the Canadian Ensign, pre-Maple Leaf flag, which was launched on February 15th, 1965, it obviously pre-dates that visit.

I would guess the photo was taken at Hatfield (if the Houchin GPU was any indication) where the Comet might have been on pre-delivery prep.

The Caribou probably stopped in at the parent DH company enroute from/to the 1964 world tour??

TC

A few Comet pics lying around my office. As a young boy had the pleasure of flying on many BOAC 4s and a few BEA 4Bs. Later in life a Dan Air 4C

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...Comet40002.jpg

I agree about the Caribou. See
Photos: De Havilland Canada DHC-4A Caribou Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Laurence