This is my first shot at making a You Tube film on the PC.
The de Havilland comet has always been a favourite of mine. It just looks so damn good when you compare it to the present day Boeing or Airbus. It's also a symbol of the greatness of the British aircraft industry at the time.
The problem with the Comet was that it pushed the boundaries of air travel into the unknown, exposing it to a new, unknown killer: metal fatigue.
De Havilland redesigned the airframe so that it could better withstand the new kinds of stresses an aircraft would be subjected to at such altitude and speed, but by the time the later model was available Boeing had cornered the market with the larger and more economical 707.
The de Havilland Aircraft Company later became merged into Hawker Siddley, which ultimately became BAE systems, the company currently carrying out the refurbishment of the Comet's military variant, the "Nimrod".
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