Comet 1 accidents
 

Were cracks emanating from the ADF aperture in the Comet 1 forward roof the common cause in all the fatigue related crashes. Did the Farnborough tank specimen fail there too ,or at a different 'cut-out'. How significant was the change from rectangular windows with slightly radiused corners to fully rounded windows ? Is it correct that the RCAF Comet 1s were satisfactorily modified and how?

No, the ADF cut-out was not common to all failures. The tank specimen ruptured from the corners of the forward escape hatch cut-out.

http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/sme/inter...s/CM7ALYU3.jpg

http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/sme/inter...s/CM8ALYU2.jpg

Yes, the two RCAF aircraft, which had been delivered some 12 months before the grounding, were modified to Comet 1XB standard. They lasted in RCAF service until the end of 1964. One went on to a US dealer and got a US registration N373S, being finally scrapped at Miami in the mid 1970s.

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1388321/

The three Air France Comet 1s were returned to the UK, two were rebuilt and served for various non-airline trials purposes. One was being flown by Hawker Siddeley, De Havilland's successors, until 1978, and is the one now in COSford museum in faux BOAC colours, which it never carried in service.

This webpage says a bit about the rework that was done

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research...t-comet-1.aspx

r u sure about that

The one in Duxford is a genuine BOAC Comet 4 (via Dan Air). Think you may be thinking about G-APAS which is in RAF Museum Cosford.

Planemike

You're right, of course. Wrong ---ford. Silly me.

Check out Neville Shutes book 'No highway'. Its is eerily connected.

Well here's another slightly unlikely websource on the Comet 1 fatigue problems...seems to know something about it.
http://www.visit-gloucestershire.co....and-106-comet/

Great read for a youngster.......mmmm

Good radii, holes correctly de-burred, rivet edge margins and improved riveting just to mention a few

TW

Neville Shute (Norway) was a distinguished aircraft and airship engineer and designer. "No Highway" was very prescient, and I still recall the film although I was quite young when I persuaded my Dad to take me to see it.

In case you haven't already found it, the report of the tank test will be of interest: http://naca.central.cranfield.ac.uk/...rc/rm/3248.pdf

This cutaway from Popular Mechanics magazine, circa 1950, was sadly prophetic:
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps2b251a21.jpg

There was a complete Comet 1 fuselage at Farnborough up until the early '80s. Part of the mothballing had peeled away revealing Air France markings. Can't remember if it had square or round windows. I'm not sure what happened to it but last time I saw it was near the airfield fire service practice ground.(not the present one, this one was on the north side in what is now Qinetiq), previously it had been in 'the dump' on the north side and prior to that near the test tank on the south side.

This was the third of the Air France fleet of the 1950s, as described above two were rebuilt and flew again but one, F-BGNX, was left derelict at Farnborough. It was eventually given to the De Havilland museum at London Colney. Here it is there about 15 years ago

Photos: De Havilland DH-106 Comet 1A Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Both Air France and the independent French carrier UAT had three Comet 1s. AF used them from Paris to the Middle East, while UT ran them to the French colonies in West Africa. The UAT ones were stored at le Bourget when the type was withdrawn and lay there for years, finally being scrapped in the 1960s.

I don't know to what extent these purchasers were given their money back when the type was withdrawn.

An interesting assembly of all the timetables of the Comet 1 users at point of withdrawl in 1954 is here :

http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/comet1.htm

4greens

agreee about no highway

did you know nevil selected the name "REINDEER" because COMET was one of Santa's Reindeer? hmmmmm

great book, great movie. great scott!

I remember there was a comet 4 sitting at KORD for many, many years...tied up in legal difficulties.

Dear Mr Goon

Please get a grip on the chronology:
"No Highway" was first published in 1948 by William Heineman, London.
I cannot remember when the DH106 was named Comet, but it was first revealed to the public in 1949. Norway would probably have known the name before that, but so what? The Rutland Reindeer was more Bristol Brabazon than anything else and the alliterative name was typical of the period.
The first Comet disaster was 1954.

In addition to the Comet project being at the painful end of the learning curve for pressurized fuselage design didn't it also bring about the formalization of take-off procedures for jet airliners (V1, V2, rotate....)?

I believe that was a result of the Canadian Pacific loss at Karachi on its delivery flight, which killed not only the crew but all the key members of the CP Comet purchase and introduction team who were on board. Their second aircraft was never delivered, and was sold instead to BOAC.

That was former Mexicana XA-NAS, which worked through various dealers in the US from the 1970s-90s without ever being used. A onetime regular PPRuNe poster was the flight engineer on that last flight from Albuquerque into O'Hare - apparently none of the crew had even been in a Comet before !

'Black' Comet XM823 [Archive] - PPRuNe Forums

On a programme about the Comet I saw recently they talked about a TO crash at Rome. All survived, but programme said that flight crew were not familiar enough with early turbine acceleration compared to piston engines, and that exact TO angle was crucial.