Steve Walker wrote:
On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:18:52 +0100, Bruce wrote:

On Sun, 18 Apr 2010 07:51:47 -0500, TheOldFellow
wrote:
Anyone taking bets on when flights will resume?
Time to get the old Piston-engine Aeroplanes out. I blame the Americans
and their Jet Airplanes.

You'll have to blame the British, because the first commercial jet
airliner was the De Havilland Comet, which was designed and built at
Hatfield, Hertfordshire.

And for a while we lead the world. If it hadn't been for the metal fatigue
problems that were pretty well unknown at that time and doomed the Comet,
maybe we still would have. There again, we gave the jet engine technology
to the Americans during the war.

In one form the Comet still flies of course - the Nimrod.


Comet was a great plane, but it had another fatal flaw.

It required a comprehensive strip down to get to the jet engines.

The Boeing's looked at the thing from a commercial operators
perspective, and realised that a cigar tube with wings strapped on and 4
pods dangling underneath was a heck of a site cheaper to fix.

Hence cost pre passenger mile was hugely less.

SteveW