The year is 1952, and you’re sitting in the newsroom of the London paper where you work
as a reporter when you get the big news - you’ve been chosen to cover the inaugural flight of the
world’s first passenger jet airplane! As happy as you are to get this important assignment,
you’re not exactly thrilled about the idea of taking to the skies - civilian jet air travel
is still a very new, very untested, concept, and you’re not keen to be a guinea pig. If you had
known at that moment that you were about to soar through the skies in the worst aircraft ever,
you just might have listened to your gut and stayed on the ground;
but when you got your assignment, the world had no idea about the
tragic fate that awaited the de Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial jet.
Today, we think nothing of hopping on a plane and jetting across the globe on a whim. With
more than 2 and a half million people travelling on more than 40,000 flights every single day,
travelling by air is nothing exciting these days. But in the years following World War 2,
the idea of an average civilian ever taking to the skies was nothing short of a pipe dream.
Airplanes had only been in use for a few decades, and Word War 2 was the first time that the world
saw planes powered by jet engines. When the de Havilland DH 106 Comet was introduced in 1949,
it was truly groundbreaking - the world’s very first commercial passenger jet airplane
would mark the start of the jet age and change the world forever. For the first time,
the average person could dream of visiting far-flung destinations, and conceive of
travelling there by air, a privilege previously reserved only for the extremely wealthy.
But the rise of the jet age was anything but a smooth ascent. From its earliest days,
man’s quest for mastery of the skies has been marked by tragedy, and the dawn of the age of
commercial air travel is no exception. Only a few short years after winning the race to
put the first commercial jet into the air, Britain’s dreams of dominating the jet age
would literally blow apart at the seams. The Comet may have turned out to be the
worst aircraft ever, but there’s no denying that it changed the course of travel - and
history - forever. But we’ll get to that in a minute… First, you’ve got a plane to catch!
On the big day, you arrive at the airport with a knot in your stomach - to say that you’re nervous
for your first-ever airplane flight would be an understatement to say the least, and getting
your first look at the machine that will hurtle you through the sky is definitely not helping.
To take your mind off your nerves, you focus on the job you’re here to do - you start talking
to the other passengers and air industry officials to gather background information
and quotes for your article. By the time the first passengers start to board the plane,
you’ll have learned a lot about the engineering marvel that’s about to hurl you through the skies,
and you’ll also have a much better appreciation for what a historic moment this is.
You chat with an official from the de Havilland Aircraft Company as you walk around the plane
admiring it’s exterior. With it’s sleek, modern design and impressive 135 foot wingspan, it truly
is beautiful - but you’re still having trouble imagining how this giant metal tube is going
to manage to stay in the air. Your new friend tells you all about how the Comet came to be,
and how this 115,000 pound marvel will safely deliver you across the world.
“De Havilland is the world leader in jet engine technology,” he brags.
“We honed our expertise in the war, and I don’t mind telling you that
our fighter jets were instrumental to the war effort. After we won the war,
it seemed selfish not to share the wonders of jet technology with the world! After all,
if you can trust our planes to win a war, you can certainly trust them to shuttle you around the
world in comfort and style. The Comet here runs on 4 of our powerful de Havilland Ghost MK1 engines,
giving her a cruising speed of 475 miles per hour - that’s 100 miles an hour faster than the
fastest propeller plane! Mark my words, the Comet will revolutionize travel and change the world!”
While you have to admire his enthusiasm, you steer the conversation back to
the facts and ask him to tell you more about how the Comet is built.
“Glad you asked!” he says. “It took us 3 years to adapt our exceptional military jet technology to
the civilian world and get the Comet air-ready. Our first test flight took place on July 29th,
1949 - which, coincidentally, happens to be Jeffry de Havilland’s 67th birthday,
as well as the birthday of our test pilot, ‘Cat-Eyes’ Cunningham! We weren’t the only ones
working on this technology, of course - I’m sure you’ve heard of the American firm Boeing? Yes,
well, I’m happy to say we beat them to the punch that day - what a birthday present, eh!?”
While you’re proud to learn that your country won the jet race, a small part of you is worried that
this intense pressure to be the first to produce a commercial jet might raise some red flags about
safety. It’s almost time to board, though, and you have more questions for the de Havilland official,
so you push your worries aside for now - a decision that will return to haunt you.
Instead, you ask him about what’s next for the company.
“Great question!” he says. “Now that our technology has been proven and we’ve established
ourselves as the world leaders in commercial jet technology, we have to be prepared to meet
the inevitable new demand for air travel that’s coming. That’s why we’re currently in the process
of building a brand-new, world-class production facility in Hatfield, England - when it’s done,
it will be the world’s largest aluminum building with an unsupported span!”
It’s time to board, so you thank him for his time and head towards the plane,
conscious as you climb aboard and enter the cabin that you’re making history.
The takeoff experience almost destroys your newfound sense of confidence - you
find yourself fighting panic as the plane’s 4 mighty engines roar just beyond your window,
and you have to close your eyes as the plane hurtles down the runway at
breakneck speeds before finally, at what seems like the very last second to you,
tilting skyward and becoming airborne. You can hardly believe it - you’re flying! Too
bad you’re too busy focusing on holding down your lunch to properly enjoy the moment...
Finally, the Comet settles into a comfortable cruising altitude of 40,000 feet,
and you’re able to calm down enough to take in your surroundings. The interior of the cabin
is surprisingly comfortable and well-appointed. The chairs are plush, and complete with built-in
ashtrays so you can enjoy your cigarettes, of course. You’re also pleasantly surprised
at how quiet the engines are once the plane is cruising - your seatmate, an experienced flyer,
tells you it’s much better than the noise and vibration of the old fashioned propeller planes.
By the time you land - despite another harrowing landing experience- you’ve officially been
converted - flying is the future! Your article about your experience gets a lot of attention,
and it would be the first of many pieces you’d do on the air travel industry
as you carve out a niche for yourself in journalism as the “fly guy”. That’s why,
a short time later, when rumors of a tragedy involving a Comet first start circulating,
you’re able to quickly get the full, gruesome story from your contacts in the airline industry.
Apparently, a British Overseas Airways, or BOAC, Comet 106 taking off from Calcutta,
India en route to Delhi crashed just 6 minutes after takeoff. Witnesses to the crash reported
that the aircraft appeared to break apart in midair before plummeting to the ground,
killing all 43 passengers and crew on board. The story is especially chilling to you,
not only because the plane was the exact same model that you yourself flew in on
your history-making flight, but the crash happened exactly one year to the day after
that momentous flight. What should have been a happy anniversary became a tragedy.
While you’re horrified at the thought of an entire plane full of people losing their lives in such
a tragic way, you are comforted by the fact that the weather must have been to blame for
this fluke accident - a severe tropical storm had hit the area around the time the plane took off,
which must have contributed to the crash. Unfortunately, that illusion wouldn’t last long.
Only a few months later, on January 10th, 1954, another eerily similar rumour starts to make the
rounds - another Comet has crashed, once again killing everyone on board. This flight was headed
to London, but plunged into the Meditterainan sea near the island of Elba shortly after
taking off from Ciampino Airport in Italy. All 35 passengers and crew lost their lives.
Because the crash was suspiciously similar to the one back in May - witnesses again
reported seeing the plane break apart before plunging into the
sea - BOAC temporarily took their fleet of Comets out of service.
After covering the second crash, something feels off to you. A single accident is one thing,
but two? It can’t be a coincidence. Sadly, you don’t have to wait long to have your suspicions
confirmed. BOAC would unground their fleet of Comets after only 3 months, and on April 8th,
1954, just one month after the BOAC Comet fleet was ungrounded, tragedy would strike again.
This time, a South African Airways Comet
heading to Cairo from Rome crashed into the Sea of Naples immediately after takeoff,
killing all 21 passengers and crew on board. This time, the pattern couldn’t be ignored.
The Comet’s Certificate of airworthiness was withdrawn due to the similarities
between all three crashes, and the entire fleet of Comets were grounded indefinitely.
With commercial jet travel surging in popularity in the few short years since
your historic first flight, everyone was watching the airline industry, and the Comet tragedies were
heavily covered all over the world. And yet, rather than scare people away from
travelling by air, the popularity of air travel continued to explode in the following years.
When humans decided they wanted to master the skies, they couldn’t do so without taking
some risks along the way. Flying has always been dangerous, and has always been marked by tragedy,
especially in the early years. But the modern airline industry has learned many
important lessons from these tragedies, and as a result, flying is now incredibly safe.
In the case of the Comet tragedies, there were plenty of lessons to be
learned that would make air travel safer for everyone in the future.
The Comet tragedies resulted in an unprecedented investigation into the plane’s safety record,
and led to permanent improvements in airplane design and air safety regulations.
The investigation revealed that the crashes were the result of metal fatigue caused by
the repeated pressurization and depressurization of the cabin in repeated takeoffs and landings.
Using extensive water tank testing, investigators were able to identify the weak areas of the cabin,
particularly the square corners of the escape hatch and windows.
Repeated stress on these vulnerable points, combined with a flawed riveting technique,
had eventually caused the planes to literally blow apart at the seams. This might seem obvious to us
in modern times, but pressurization and metal stress were not widely understood in the 1950s,
and these tragedies directly led to huge advancements in these areas.
De Havilland’s American competitors Boeing and Douglas would use the findings from this
investigation to improve their own commercial jets, and go on to dominate the long-distance
travel industry. De Havilland wouldn’t go down without a fight, though - in 1958, they would
again make history when the redesigned Comet 4 - this time with rounded windows - made the first
Transatlantic passenger crossing, beating Pan Am by only a few weeks. Still, de Havilland would
never again achieve the same level of aerospace dominance that it enjoyed before the tragedies.
It’s incredibly unfortunate that so many people had to lose their lives, but the improvements made
to commercial jets as a result of these and other air tragedies would undoubtedly save countless
lives in the future, as more and more people took to the skies and the jet age really took off.
As for you? Well, you go on to nurture a lifelong passion for air travel and conquer your fear of
flying for good. You become a respected aerospace journalist and take many more flights throughout
your life. The more you learned about airplane design and airline industry safety standards,
the more you realized just how safe air travel is - up to 19 times safer than travelling by car,
in fact. Besides, you survived flying on the worst aircraft ever!
Check out the video “How A 1 In A Billion Chance Brought Down A Whole Airplane”,
or, you might like this other video instead.