Celebrating 60 Years of Transatlantic Jet Service
 

I missed this yesterday:

https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/c...c-jet-service/

Interesting article from the Daily Telegraph marking the 50th anniversary in 2008:

Transatlantic travel: Flying back to the Fifties

Includes the memorable quote:

Of course Pan Am had a point - their 707 service launched a few weeks later didn't require a fuel stop at Gander westbound.

And a good write-up here in Flight:-

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...arnest-449222/

Westbound the early 707s DID often require fuel stops - either Shannon or Gander.

The six 707s Pan Am used to launch jet Transatlantic services in 1958 were domestic 707-121 models with JT-3C engines hence the occasional need to refuel en route... they also had 'interesting' experiences like a possibly supersonic dive over the Atlantic and losing an engine pod over Northern France, same airframe, both incidents, without injury fortunately.. https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1178049/

Loads of LAP Northside tarmac photos of the Comet 4 inaugural at https://artsandculture.google.com/se...kauffman%20jet featuring BOAC Captain Alabaster and BOAC directors BBC correspondent Reginald Turnhill etc etc

As a piece of aviation history, the eastbound Comet 4 survives at Duxford in BOAC colours.

It was presented to the Duxford Aviation Society by Dan-Air and I believe there were some who thought it should be preserved in their colour scheme but as a historic aircraft in its own right the decision was made to return it to how it looked when it made the transatlantic flight.

The Duxford Comet remained in Dan-Air colours until British Airways bought Dan-Air, after which it was returned to its original BOAC livery.

I know I've quoted it before but:

Twinkle twinkle little Boeing
How I wonder where you're going
Up above the world so high
Like a Comet in the sky.

In September 1969 I had an excellent curry lunch in the Oberoi Grand in Calcutta with Peggy Thorne, who had been one of the two stewardesses on the westbound flight. She was by then in charge of the CCU based Indian national stewardesses. She lives on, and now ninety-one was recently invited back to LHR to take part in the anniversary celebrations.

Captain Alabaster, having relinquished fleet manager duties when the Comet fleet was disbanded, ended his BOAC career as a training captain on the VC10.

Delving back into my increasingly rusty memory, I think the captain on the PanAm eastbound flight was Scott Flower. Edit: https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...20-%200678.PDF