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Comet Question

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  • Member since
    June 2014
  • From: New Braunfels , Texas
Comet Question
Posted by Tanker - Builder on Thursday, December 5, 2019 7:45 AM

Hi;

   Okay, here goes. We all know that Dehavilland's Comet Airliner early on had some bad flaws. Can anyone tell me how long they flew with the re-designed windows?

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Thursday, December 5, 2019 9:04 AM

These things are hard to know because older airframes end up on the hands of overseas operators that don’t always have the best records.

I think the answer is late 70’s.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    March 2013
Posted by patrick206 on Thursday, December 5, 2019 12:53 PM

I saw a Mexicana Comet in Mexico City, late 60's. Last sighting for me. Looked rough and unloved. Amazingly, I think the UK military might still be flying them in regular use.

Patrick

  • Member since
    July 2014
Posted by modelcrazy on Thursday, December 5, 2019 1:05 PM

the Nimrod was retired in 2011

Steve

Building a kit from your stash is like cutting a head off a Hydra, two more take it's place.

 

 

http://www.spamodeler.com/forum/

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Thursday, December 5, 2019 2:05 PM

I saw one at Munich in probably 1988. Derelict.

The Airfix Nimrod model is a real hair puller.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    June 2014
  • From: New Braunfels , Texas
Posted by Tanker - Builder on Friday, December 6, 2019 11:33 AM

Hi " G " 

     Thanks for that. I was thinking of acquiring one from a neighbor. I don't have enough hair to do it then.

  • Member since
    March 2015
  • From: Close to Chicago
Posted by JohnnyK on Monday, December 9, 2019 6:52 PM

Here is an interesting story of the Comet that spent most of its life at O'hare Field, Chicago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9pmYrvz6YU

At one time in its life it was going to be purchased by a nudist group!!!

I remember for years driving on Mannheim Road, eastern border of O'Hare, watching that plane slowley fall apart.

 

 

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

  • Member since
    October 2019
  • From: New Braunfels, Texas
Posted by Tanker-Builder on Thursday, December 12, 2019 12:32 PM

Hi " G " 

    What surprised me most is the Empennage was so Retro compared to the main wing! You would've thought they would've streamlined it! And on the Nimrod, Man that was a really weird looking tail!

 The bigger plane reminds me of the old Globemaster or one of those. I can't remember the name but one was an Airliner with the double looking Fuselage. Wasn't that originally based on the B-29?

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Thursday, December 12, 2019 1:57 PM

The last Comet flight was in 1997, an aircraft which had been owned by the Ministry of Technology. As mentioned, the Nimrod was withdrawn in 2011.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Thursday, December 12, 2019 5:21 PM

Tanker-Builder

 The bigger plane reminds me of the old Globemaster or one of those. I can't remember the name but one was an Airliner with the double looking Fuselage. Wasn't that originally based on the B-29?

That was the old Boeing B-377 Stratocruiser.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Northern California
Posted by jeaton01 on Thursday, December 12, 2019 8:13 PM

A pox on all those swept fins on subsonic airplanes!  The Comet had a Proper Tail!

John

To see build logs for my models:  http://goldeneramodel.com/mymodels/mymodels.html

 

  • Member since
    March 2015
  • From: Close to Chicago
Posted by JohnnyK on Thursday, December 12, 2019 8:55 PM

I really liked the way the engines were integrated with the wings on the Comet. Very slick. 

Your comments and questions are always welcome.

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Friday, December 13, 2019 12:07 AM

It might be time to give a little context.

Read this.

https://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/crgis/images/c/ca/PEN00067.pdf

You'll see that aircraft designers in the 1940's percieved higher aircraft speeds for trans sonic and hyper sonic aircraft than we have been able to acheive

Exhibits of this analysis in the UK producesd a series on jet aircraft designs that placed power units inside a wing that was also designed for low wing loading, aerodynamic effiency (definitely not well understood then at supersonic speeds).

Examples include the V Bombers- Valiant. Victor and Vulcan.

The Comet (second DH aircraft to bear the name) was another. 

I lived summers in the UK from about 1960 to 1965. My father was an aircraft engineer who evaluated Caravelle and Concorde for the US market.

Caravelle was an early attempt cross-channel between SNACE which became Sud Aviation and De Havilland which was absorbed into BAC to develop the first mid range jet civilian transport in scale.

Caravelle used the flight deck of the Comet, but was powered by RR Avons, axial flow turboets.

Comet used centrifugal flow DH Ghost jets initially and Avons later. There is alot to besaid about the pluses and minuses of et turbines buriied in the wing. My only observation is that when the UK was advancing jet aircraft design, speeds were goals that later became harder to obtain above the Mach 1 threshold and depended on more that wind tunnel testing.

 

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    September 2012
Posted by GMorrison on Wednesday, December 25, 2019 1:30 AM

Bish

The last Comet flight was in 1997, an aircraft which had been owned by the Ministry of Technology. As mentioned, the Nimrod was withdrawn in 2011.

 

I can't find my photos of my Airfix Nimrod. I did not like building her. Maid of Kinloss I think.

She had the same death wish of seams at 3 and 9 o'clock in the intakes, as the Matchbox Victor and Airfix Vulcans have had.

Dad worked on crash evaluation of the Comet. There were water immersion tests of the airframe that revealed somee of the stress problems, but no definitive answers. He always said, with reason, that (in the safest transportation mode ever created); at least four things have to go wrong at once.

Number one. Crew mistakes are NOT a significant factor.

Number two.  Full power mode.

Number three. The space between the aircraft and the ground.

 Modeling is an excuse to buy books.

 

  • Member since
    December 2002
  • From: Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England
Posted by Bish on Wednesday, December 25, 2019 7:33 AM

Ye, if i recall you did build that one. You can just about make it out on the old PB link on Stik's GB.

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/29/t/166177.aspx?page=1

I have the same kit but also have some resin intake for it. Heard they were an issue on that kit.

I am a Norfolk man and i glory in being so

 

On the bench: Airfix 1/72nd Harrier GR.3/Fujimi 1/72nd Ju 87D-3

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