To my abject horror I noticed I’ve never built anything by De Havilland. In recompense I give you the Comet 1. This is also coincides rather nicely with the 100th anniversary of British airways (we’ve all seen the ad on TV!) and was the first jet aircraft operated by the forerunner of BA, BOAC.
The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the worlds first commercial jet airliner first taking to the air in 1949 with service commencing in 1952. Being relatively quiet and cutting flight times by a considerable margin she was an immediate market pleaser. Commercial success was curtailed by a series of catastrophic mid air break ups caused by the little known phenomenon of metal fatigue.
The issue was addressed but sales never recovered. The majestic Comet had pioneered the way into the unknown and taught aircraft manufacturers invaluable lessons.
Some notes on this build.
I don’t have 1.8 yet. Performance is a little slow at low altitude - I wanted a realistic cruising speed at height without it going supersonic!
1:1 scale
I also carefully selected a registration number that was not involved in mid air break up for this build as that would be a little morbid.
Specifications
Spotlights
- GhostHTX 5.1 years ago
General Characteristics
- Successors 3 airplane(s)
- Created On iOS
- Wingspan 114.3ft (34.8m)
- Length 93.1ft (28.4m)
- Height 27.2ft (8.3m)
- Empty Weight 66,067lbs (29,967kg)
- Loaded Weight 98,625lbs (44,735kg)
Performance
- Power/Weight Ratio 0.683
- Wing Loading 38.8lbs/ft2 (189.6kg/m2)
- Wing Area 2,540.2ft2 (236.0m2)
- Drag Points 27251
Parts
- Number of Parts 420
- Control Surfaces 8
- Performance Cost 1,417
420 parts😳
Congratulations you got on Frantic's video!!!
@Tang0five yeah the history of the comet is incredibly interesting. Some people today look at it as a terrible death trap but it’s important to bare in mind that it was the very first of its kind and the issues it had couldn’t have been found in testing as it took thousands of flight hours and hundreds of pressurisations for the correct conditions to be met where the plane with fall apart. The later comets were very successful as an airframe but the world had moved on from the comet by then sadly
Thanks again! From what I’ve read the general strength of the airframe let it down and the square windows (that were supposed to be glued and riveted, were only riveted) exacerbated the cracks. Punch rivets (as opposed to drilled) were also used which created an imperfect cut allowing fatigue cracks to form. Still, someone had to learn the hard way.
@Mustang51
Ouch, those square windows really grind my gears hahahaha. If only De Havilland chose to use round windows everything would have been fine
Thank you @Thenewowenbuilder glad you think so!
Great
Oh only a little. I am now employed in a middle management role by a leading chemists (rhymes with chutes) and it is challenging, in a fun kind of way. Also in a “bugger me I have a lot to do”, way too. FYI, its quarter past midnight here and I just stopped working. I just picked up SP again after a wee break, yesterday, the heli parts are chuffin lovely. Congrats again on making it into the club, old bean! @Tang0five
Thanks @GhostHTX again I feel you’ve also had a big impact in that outcome. You’ve been quiet lately - I hope your not being worked to death? :)
@Tang0five well frantic Matty used your build on his video here
Welcome to the club, old chap!
Thank you all for your support!
@asteroidbook345 @spefyjerbf @Kungfuevan @Treadmill103 @SledDriver @OC3LOT1142 @QingyuZhou @Zott @WarHawk95 @Tonnkatu500 @GTAPRO @BRuthless @Avro683Lancaster @MEERKAT978 @IGNikolaev @jamesPLANESii @SakuraSaku @Silvan @Falkenwut
Thank you! @RamboJutter I think you’ve had a v strong influence on this result so thank you again! I dont know what one does with this status except continue imitating great British aircraft!
You are far too kind to me old bean thank you! Glad to hear from you once again! I trust you’ve been watching the rugger..... nail chomping stuff for sure, gutted but at the same time I felt the result was fitting for such a match. Japan’s going to be interesting! @GhostHTX
@Tang0five congratulations on platinum old chap :)
Thanks again buddy! @Trainzo
Chuffin marvelous. Get yourself into the platinim club, pronto!
Just fantastic . I love it . Great job for a great plane . 👍
Dude, I just love the Comet @Tang0five
Thank you all!! @RamboJutter @ThePilotDude @Vidal99977
Definitely on my radar although I was going to morph this into a later comet (maybe comet 4) and then into a nimrod. Time permitting of course! @Alien
Lovely job, old bean! Awaiting your AEW Nimrod with interest and not a little trepidation... (hint, hint)
Thank you gentlemen! @Griffinthedragon @TMach5 @Feanor
And I thought my iPad was bad..... I can download up to 500 parts, but then it struggles building things past 400 parts... I feel your pain! @TheFantasticTyphoon
@Tang0five My device is too slow to download a plane with a 200+ part count.