Today in Aviation: First Flight of the de Havilland Comet 1 airwaysmag.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from airwaysmag.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
MIAMI – Today in Aviation, the first regular jet flight, a de Havilland Comet, left London in 1952 with 36 passengers on board bound for Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight was operated by BOAC, the first airline to introduce a passenger jet into commercial service.
The Comet, designated G-ALYP by BOAC, flew at 450-500 mph at 35-40,000 feet, covering 6,700 miles in 23 hours and 20 minutes, with stops in Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe, and Livingstone. The return flight to London took place three days later, on May 5, 1952.
The flight to Johannesburg lasted 18 hours and 40 minutes. An alternative route that bypassed Beirut and went via Cairo cut the total distance by 450 miles and the travel time by an hour.
It presents an eclectic group of works which map the changing characteristics of British sculpture since the 1950s.
The bronze statue to aviation pioneer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland on the College Lane Campus of the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield.
- Credit: Alan Davies
Among the uni s sculptures is a life-size bronze tribute to aeronautical engineer and Hatfield aviation pioneer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland.
Sir Geoffrey founded the de Havilland Aircraft Company in September 1920 at Stag Lane Aerodrome in Edgware.
The company later moved in the 1930s to a new factory on the Hatfield Aerodrome site, where it became a firm competing on the global stage.