The de Havilland Comet. Engineering Disaster.

In 1952 it seemed as if the British company de Havilland was going to take the lead in the production of jet powered airliners worldwide.The de Havilland Comet was the world's first jet airliner to go into production commercially. The planes were a huge success with the flying public. The position of the de Havilland company as the world's leader in jet airliner production looked secure.

The first prototype of the de Havilland Comet flew on July 27 1949. The second prototype was delivered to British Overseas Airways Corporation (B.O.A.C) on April 2 1951. This airliner was used in the training of flights crews and service personnel.

In May of 1952 the Comets began to carry fare paying passengers.The first route was established between London and Johannesburg South Africa. With it's ability to cruise at 35.000 feet where the air was thinner and smoother, and to cut hours off of the time of a trip, the Comet was a huge success from it's first day in service.

The first accidents began almost immediately On October 26 1952,a B.O.A.C Comet departing from Rome,fail to become airborne before running out of runway. There were only minor injuries,but the aircraft was a total loss.The next mishap also occurred when the plane failed to become airborne on takeoff. This accident happened in Karachi Pakistan and the five crew members and all nine passengers died. These were the first fatalities suffered in a commercial jet airliner crash.Both of these accidents were attributed to pilot error due to inexperience with the aircraft..

It wasn't long before the next crash.On May 2 1953 a B.O.A.C Comet crashed in a severe storm six minutes after taking off from Calcutta India. All 43 people on board perished in the crash. The government of India conducted a Court of Inquiry to investigate the accident.Witnesses testified to seeing the wingless hull of the Comet plunging to the earth. The Court of Inquiry's verdict was that the Comet had crashed due to structural failure caused by the server turbulence credited to the storm the aircraft had passed through prior to the crash.

On January 10 1954 a B.O.A.C flight out of Rome broke up in mid flight 20 minutes after take off and fell in pieces into the Mediterranean Sea off of the Island of Elba. All 35 people on board died. There was no apparent cause for the break up of the aircraft and there were no witnesses this time. Rumors were beginning to spread among those in the know,that there may be and unseen problems with the Comet's design.

The de Havilland company had invested heavily in the future of their Jet Liner.They had also gone deep into debt in order to begin production.The company's very existence depended on the success of the Comet. The de Havilland company and the government of England began a joint investigation into the Comet crash. B.O.A.C grounded their Comet fleet until the investigation was concluded. During the investigation the Royal Navy started an effort to recover as much of the Comet's wreckage from the floor of the Mediterranean sea as possible.After eight months of searching the ocean floor they had succeeded in recovering approximately 60 % of the wreckage. And yet they were still unable to find a definitive cause as to why the aircraft broke up in flight.After these inconclusive findings the Comet's once again were allowed to begin to carry paying passengers.

Then on April 4 1954 another B.O.A.C Comet on a charter fight for South African Airways was bound for Johannesburg.During the first leg of it's trip between Rome and Cairo the plane broke apart in mid flight and another B.O.A.C Comet crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, this time near Naples Italy.

B.O.A.C once again grounded their fleet of Comets until a cause could be found for the plane's sudden break up,and again the Royal Navy was tasked with trying to recover the wreckage from the sea floor. The most extensive and expensive investigation in England's industrial history was launched in a search for the cause or causes to the accidents.

Investigators into the crash built a huge water tank in which they were able to submerge the fuselage of a Comet repeatedly in an effort to simulate the condition the aircraft experienced during the repeated pressurization of it's cabin during daily flight operations.After the fuselage was subjected less than 400 cycles,(a cycle being one landing and one takeoff)cracks began to appear around the edges of the cabin's windows.The process of metal fatigue began as soon as holes were drilled for the rivets in the planes thin aluminum skin around the square windows.It was an engineering mistake. Everything about the Comet was a learning experience for designers and engineers alike. Like in Star Trek,they were exploring new frontiers.It's to bad people had to die in order for some of these lessons to be learned.

Britain's aerospace industry would never regain their early lead. de Haviland went back to work and redesigned the Comet,but the damage had been done.In the interim, America's Boeing Aircraft Corporation was taking the lead in the production of Jet Airliners which it would maintain to this day.

Despite the redesigned,the Comet,it was doomed to failure. de Havilland built the redesigned comet until 1959 when production was discontinued due to lack of sales.. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1964.

Britain's hopes of domineering the Jet Airliner market were crushed,and it was mainly due to the failure of the Comet.