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[[image - drawing of a slide ruler]] TECHNICALLY SPEAKING WORLD’S FIRST JET TRANSPORT 1950 - 500 MILES PER HOUR [[image - photograph] It’s just a step away, that jet-propelled transport that the experts had said was years hence. It is causing jubilance in British airline circles, but many a furrowed brow on U.S. air lines in direct competition with the British. The reason: it offers 500 miles an hour transportation allegedly with increased passenger comfort and no impairment of performance characteristics. Moreover, quantity production of the de Havilland jet “Comet“ (pictured above) is well underway“. Sixteen “Comets” are in production, two for the government and fourteen for British Overseas Airways Corporation and British South American Airways. Five are said to be well advanced. Privately, many of this country’s foremost aviation officials who publicly had been saying that jet-propelled air liners weren’t for our time, are beginning to wonder if the British haven’t stolen a march on us. They set unanticipated and stiff competition suddenly roaring at them out of England skies in the form of a new de Havilland ”Comet,” the world’s first jet-propelled passenger transport. And worry well they may, because, unless the secret is being kept far better than most secrets are, we have nothing even on the drawing boards that will touch it. Fastest Transport — Advance data on the plane that may precipitate another revolution in air transport indicate that it is fast - fast to the tune of a 500-mile–an–hour cruising speed; that its performance characteristics are good – good enough to be on a par with conventional planes; that quantity production is well underway – far enough underway that it will be in commission on British trunk lines by 1952; and that it is economically competitive – enough so to give rise to far more widespread and legitimate worries than the industry care to admit. Technically, the “Comet” has overcome many of those problems that had previously made jet propulsion in adaptable to air line use. The designers claim that “while having the purest dynamic form yet attained in a transport plane, the Comet is not revolutionary in appearance.“ But however unrevolutionary the appearance, the plane itself is nothing but revolutionary. Main Features - If claims are correct and accurate, and recent successful test flights seem to indicate they are, the following features have been built into the jet-propelled air craft: • Moderate wing loading that, according to the de Havilland company, “is, in fact, less than that of conventional air liners presently in service.“ • Speed without the sacrifice of slow flying ability with the stalling speed calculated as being reasonably moderate. • Letdown, approach, landing and takeoff characteristics similar to those of modern-day transports permitting it to use normal runways and existing airports. Today, the “Comet“ has done more than 30 hours of test flying and has flown at 37,500 feet with its specially pressurized cabin. It has not yet used more than 50 per cent of its power, 67 per cent of which will be required at cruising speeds. It takes off in 3,300 yards with a full load and in 500 yards slightly loaded. It has completed its stalling trials and measured takeoffs and is now in the process of undergoing controlled load tests. Its weight is approximately 100,000 pounds and its fuel is 99 per cent kerosene and 1 per cent oil. Powering the plane are four de Havilland “Ghost” engines, each developing 5,000 pounds of thrust. They were specifically designed for air line use and because of their method of air induction are said to have a more complete ram effect and greater thrust. Super brakes plus flaps, used since it has no reversible props, check landing speed. Boon to Passengers - From a standpoint of passenger comfort it eliminates a nuisance that air travelers have long decried - noise loud and monotonous. There is little of it because the cone of sound from its inboard jet engines misses the cabin. The biggest noise comes from the sound of air is slipping past the cabin at high speed. Another year of test flights will probably be undertaken before the “Comet“ is placed into operation and there is also a fuel problem to be whipped. The plane can carry enough fuel for a transatlantic crossing but on arrival would not have enough left to allow it to start for 1 1/2 hours as required by current regulations. [[image - photograph]] 1918 Carrying the mail in 1918 was a calling to which only first flight adventurers lent an ear. It was in planes like this that air mail history was first written – the old “Jenny“ that took off from Potomac Park in Washington on May 15, 1918, to start air mail service between New York and Washington. But sentiment gave way to progress and the tri-motors, the old Boeings and the DC-3’s took over to write new chapters in air history. [[image - photograph]] 1949 Today the air lanes of the world are plied by giant modern air liners like this Boeing Stratocruiser that whisks mail and passengers from here to there at 300-mile-an-hour speeds. But is it already, before it is hardly off the assembly lines, about to suffer the fate of obsolescence that it dealt out and bow into the “has been“ class in the face of the “Transport of Tomorrow,“ the 500 MPH DeHavilland “Comet“ pictured at the top of the page? AUGUST, 1949 PAGE 9
