Both the Comet 1 and Comet 2 marks could be equipped to carry 36 and 44 passengers. Maximum speed for the Comet 2 was 490 miles per hour with an MTOW of 120,000lb, a range out to 2,600 miles, and a cruising altitude of 42,000 feet.
The Comet 3, first appearing in 1954, was the next logical offshoot of the series. It was over 15 feet longer than the earlier Comet 2 and was completed with 4 x RR Avon M502 turbojet engines of greater power. This, naturally, led the mark to exhibit better range and overall performance when compared to previous Comet marks but only two Comet 3 airframes were built. These went on to live largely developmental lives for their part in the Comet story and nine additional airframes went unfinished. Reduced-span wing mainplanes were used in the related Comet 3B and this model was flown publically at Farnborough 1958.
The Comet 3 was arranged to carry between 58 and 76 passengers. Maximum speed was 520 miles per hour with an MTOW of 150,000lb, a range out to 2,700 miles, and a cruising altitude of 45,000 feet.
The Comet 4 continued the development avenue of the Comet 3 series and increased fuel capacity even more, leading to better operational ranges, and there were improvements to performance, take-off weight, and internal seating capacity as well. First-deliveries of the mark, with reduced wingspans and a longer fuselage, began in September of 1958 with eighteen examples going to carrier BOAC. A further twenty-three, produced under the Comet 4C designation, were given the wing of the Comet 4 standard with the fuselage of the Comet 4B. A pair of prototypes were forged from the Comet 4C work and these served the all-important Hawker Siddeley "Nimrod" project detailed elsewhere on this site.
The Comet 4 held the capacity to carry 56 to 81 passengers. Maximum speed was 520 miles per hour with an MTOW of 156,000lb, a range out to 3,225 miles, and a cruising altitude of 42,000 feet miles.
The Comet 5 mark was a proposed, improved form of the Comet line and set to include a wider fuselage for additional seating, a revised wing mainplane with greater sweepback, and more efficient Rolls-Royce "Conway" turbofan engines held in wing nacelles/pods. This design fell to naught.
The Comet Bomber
Back in 1946, the British Air Ministry drew up Specification B.35/46 calling for a nuclear-capable, high-altitude reconnaissance platform and the DH.106 was briefly considered in the DH.111 "Comet Bomber" guise. The design emerged in 1948 but the effort was dropped in favor of the V-Bomber force which took control of the British nuclear arsenal for the foreseeable future.
Operators and Service Career
Operators of the Comet were global and ranged from Argentina and Australia to Sudan and the United Kingdom. The British, as well as the Canadians, operated the platform at the military level as well which put the airframe through the rigors of defense-minded service during the Cold War period (1947-1991). In the former, the Comet C2, Comet 2R, and the Comet C4 were all the marks used from a period spanning 1956 until 1975. In the latter, the Comet 1A was the choice mount though the aircraft fleet were later upgraded to the Comet 1XB standard. The RCAF operated its Comets from 1953 until 1963.
Operation of the Comet was marred by accidents and fatalities numbering thirteen crashes and 426 lives lost. From the period of May 1953 until April of 1954, there were three high-profile crashes alone which force the entire fleet to be grounded pending review. This period was then used to enact revisions to the design and it was not until 1958 that the series was allowed back into the air. The lull in operations allowed American competitors in Boeing and Douglas time to centralize their efforts and leap ahead of the British in the jet-powered passenger market.
Content ©MilitaryFactory.com; No Reproduction Permitted.