de Havilland DH106 Comet 4
Aircraft overview:
First flown in 1958 at Hatfield, the Comet 4 was a ‘stretched’ version of the Comet airliner, having higher all-up weight, with higher thrust engines and extra fuel to meet British Oversees Airways Corporation (BOAC) requirements for operating on the North Atlantic route. Nineteen Mk.4s were ordered for BOAC and, in October 1958, two of them (flying east-west and west-east simultaneously) made the world’s first transatlantic jet flights with fare-paying passengers. In total, 74 Comet 4 aircraft were built including Mk.4B and 4C versions.
Aircraft specifications:
Power Unit: Four 10,500 lbst Rolls Royce Avon 524 turbojets
Wing Span: 114 ft 10 inches (35 m)
All-Up Weight (A.U.W): 160,000 lb (72,575 kg)
Cruise speed: 503 mph (809 kph)
Cruise Altitude: 42,000 ft (12,802 m)
Range: 3,225 miles (5,190 km)
Passengers: 60 to 81
On display at the Museum:
The Museum’s exhibit is a Comet 4 analogue flight simulator for crew training was built for BOAC by Redifon Flight Simulation at Crawley. It used a redundant Comet 2 front fuselage, but with functioning cockpit equipment and instruments installed to Comet 4 standard. Such simulators offered flight crew training at low cost and in complete safety. Ownership of the simulator was transferred to Dan-Air in 1970, when BOAC sold its Comet 4s. After being used for a total of 10,660 training hours, the flight simulator was taken out of service in 1983 when Dan-Air retired its Comet fleet. It was kept at the Science Museum’s store at Wroughton until 1996, when it was offered to this Museum, and transported here.
DH106 Comet simulator at The de Havilland Museum, London Colney, UK. #DH106 #comet #deHavilland #museum #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA