Comet The Worlds First Jet Airliner

Author : Graham M. Simons
Publisher : Pen and Sword
ISBN 13 : 1473826586
Total Pages : 956 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Comet! written by Graham M. Simons and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-11-14 with total page 956 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A masterpiece of the most diligent research and extraordinary detail and surely represents the definitive study of the Comet . . . a terrific book.”—Royal Aeronautical Society This volume from the respected and well-regarded aviation historian and author Graham Simons is “a solid book of such scope that you’ll probably consult it for a lot more than just Comet material” (SpeedReaders.info). Extensively illustrated throughout, Comet! features details lifted directly from enquiry and salvage reports, much of which have never been published before and offers a unique insight into the failures and tragedies that blighted the early days of development, laying down lessons that were ultimately to benefit later designs. As part of his research into the book, the author met and interviewed Harry Povey, the De Havilland Production Manager and John Cunningham, the Comet test pilot who would be the first to experience flight at the helms of the iconic craft. Both of these first-hand accounts are relayed in the book, adding a deeper sense of authenticity and a more personalized account of proceedings than facts and reports alone are able to achieve. Attention is also paid to the derivative Nimrod design, and the book features an interview that the author conducted with the aircraft commander of the last ever Nimrod operational flight. Interviews of this kind are supplemented by the author’s own narrative of proceedings, setting personal experience within historical context and exploring the themes and historical topics that the interviews evoke. “An outstanding account of the life of the Comet . . . all readers will find inspiration and achievement in the tale.”—Firetrench

Author : Sam Howe Verhovek
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 158333436X
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jet Age written by Sam Howe Verhovek and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-08-02 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The captivating story of the titans, engineers, and pilots who raced to design a safe and lucrative passenger jet. In Jet Age, journalist Sam Howe Verhovek explores the advent of the first generation of jet airliners and the people who designed, built, and flew them. The path to jet travel was triumphal and amazingly rapid-less than fifty years after the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, Great Britain led the world with the first commercial jet plane service. Yet the pioneering British Comet was cursed with a tragic, mysterious flaw, and an upstart Seattle company put a new competitor in the sky: the Boeing 707 Jet Stratoliner. Jet Age vividly recreates the race between two nations, two global airlines, and two rival teams of brilliant engineers for bragging rights to the first jet service across the Atlantic Ocean in 1958. At the center of this story are great minds and courageous souls, including Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, who spearheaded the development of the Comet, even as two of his sons lost their lives flying earlier models of his aircraft; Sir Arnold Hall, the brilliant British aerodynamicist tasked with uncovering the Comet's fatal flaw; Bill Allen, Boeing's deceptively mild-mannered president; and Alvin "Tex" Johnston, Boeing's swashbuckling but supremely skilled test pilot. The extraordinary airplanes themselves emerge as characters in the drama. As the Comet and the Boeing 707 go head-to-head, flying twice as fast and high as the propeller planes that preceded them, the book captures the electrifying spirit of an era: the Jet Age. In the spirit of Stephen Ambrose's Nothing Like It in the World, Verhovek's Jet Age offers a gorgeous rendering of an exciting age and fascinating technology that permanently changed our conception of distance and time, of a triumph of engineering and design, and of a company that took a huge gamble and won.

Author : Colin Higgs
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1526719630
Total Pages : 279 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book De Havilland Comet written by Colin Higgs and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A first-rate review of the history of the world's first commercial jetliner, its early difficulties and their rectification” (Firetrench). The world got a little smaller in July 1949 when the first jet-powered airliner took to the skies barely four years after the end of the Second World War. Not only was the de Havilland Comet 1 was a lot faster than previous airliners, but it could also fly higher and further. It was packed with new technology but, perhaps most importantly for those early passengers, it was a quiet, luxurious, and even pleasant experience, something that could never be said for the noisy piston-engine aircraft that came before. The Comet’s leadership in jet travel for the future was assured until aircraft began crashing. The first ones were put down to pilot error but two disastrous events in 1954 grounded the fleet and Britain’s advantage over the rest of the world was lost. Boeing caught up with its ubiquitous 707 and the Comet was destined to become but a memory. However, rising from the ashes came a new Comet—one that was bigger and more powerful than before and designed for completely different roles. Where the first Comets had provided an expensive and plush way to travel for the rich few, the new Comet 4s carried more passengers to a multitude of destinations inevitably becoming key carriers for the early package holidaymakers. At the same time, they became vital strategic transports for the RAF as the British Empire receded. This book tells the full story of the world’s first jet-powered airliner, from its remarkable beginnings, through its early flight trials programme to its entry into service. The type’s military career is also covered, as is its construction; also included in this volume are details of the numerous variants produced and those still surviving as exhibits today.

Author : J. G. Cowell
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781898129448
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book De Havilland Comet written by J. G. Cowell and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Sam Howe Verhovek
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 158333436X
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.62/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Jet Age written by Sam Howe Verhovek and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-08-02 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The captivating story of the titans, engineers, and pilots who raced to design a safe and lucrative passenger jet. In Jet Age, journalist Sam Howe Verhovek explores the advent of the first generation of jet airliners and the people who designed, built, and flew them. The path to jet travel was triumphal and amazingly rapid-less than fifty years after the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, Great Britain led the world with the first commercial jet plane service. Yet the pioneering British Comet was cursed with a tragic, mysterious flaw, and an upstart Seattle company put a new competitor in the sky: the Boeing 707 Jet Stratoliner. Jet Age vividly recreates the race between two nations, two global airlines, and two rival teams of brilliant engineers for bragging rights to the first jet service across the Atlantic Ocean in 1958. At the center of this story are great minds and courageous souls, including Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, who spearheaded the development of the Comet, even as two of his sons lost their lives flying earlier models of his aircraft; Sir Arnold Hall, the brilliant British aerodynamicist tasked with uncovering the Comet's fatal flaw; Bill Allen, Boeing's deceptively mild-mannered president; and Alvin "Tex" Johnston, Boeing's swashbuckling but supremely skilled test pilot. The extraordinary airplanes themselves emerge as characters in the drama. As the Comet and the Boeing 707 go head-to-head, flying twice as fast and high as the propeller planes that preceded them, the book captures the electrifying spirit of an era: the Jet Age. In the spirit of Stephen Ambrose's Nothing Like It in the World, Verhovek's Jet Age offers a gorgeous rendering of an exciting age and fascinating technology that permanently changed our conception of distance and time, of a triumph of engineering and design, and of a company that took a huge gamble and won.

Author : J. Graham Cowell
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 134 pages
Book Rating : 4.56/5 ( download)

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Download or read book D.H. Comet written by J. Graham Cowell and published by . This book was released on 1999* with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Bruce Hales-Dutton
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781915343567
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Comet written by Bruce Hales-Dutton and published by . This book was released on 2024-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: t was a sensation! The World's first jet airliner flew for the first time barely four years after the end of the Second World War...and it was British. It revolutionised commercial air travel. It was the fastest airliner in the World and it inspired a post-war public with its pioneering jet engines and sleek design. Star-struck celebrities and royalty flew in it. The World's airlines were queuing up to order. And then triumph turned to tragedy. Packed with rare and unseen images and memorabilia, Comet delves into this amazing aircraft from the dark days of WW2 when it was conceived by Sir Geoffreyde Havilland, through its design and manufacture and introduction to service with BOAC amid cheering and flag waving. It covers in depth the tragic Comet crashes, the exhaustive work done on solving the crash mysteries and its successfu reincarnation, both for civil airlines and for the military, as the Comet 4 and eventually the RAF's Nimrod, the ultimate and final variant of the Comet design. This book also gives the reader a flavour of the excitement of air travel in the 1950s and provides an invaluable reference work to every Comet built.

Author : R. E. G. Davies
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781888962147
Total Pages : 63 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

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Download or read book De Havilland Comet written by R. E. G. Davies and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 63 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: July 27th 1999 is the 50th anniversary of the first flight of the de Havilland DH 106 Comet airliner. This tribute volume marks the inauguration of the commercial Jet Age by the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC).

Author : Timothy Walker
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781902236056
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.5X/5 ( download)

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Download or read book First Jet Airliner written by Timothy Walker and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work provides a history of the first civil jet transport to be designed, built and to enter world service. It includes a close-up-detail section for modellers, and specially commissioned colour profiles introduce each chapter.

Author : R.E.G. Davies
Publisher : Smithsonian Institution
ISBN 13 : 194446607X
Total Pages : 479 pages
Book Rating : 4.77/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Airlines of the Jet Age written by R.E.G. Davies and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2016-08-24 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Airlines of the Jet Age provides the first comprehensive history of the world's airlines from the early 1960s to the present day. It begins with an informative introductory chapter on the infancy of flight and the development of air-transport craft used during the First and Second World Wars, and then wings into the "first" Jet Age--the advent of jet airlines. It continues through the "second" Jet Age of wide-bodied aircraft, such as the Boeing 747 and DC-10, and closes with the introduction of the "third" Jet Age, which begins with the giant double-decked Airbus A380. This reference book is an unparalelled reference for aviation buffs, covering airlines around the globe and throughout the modern eras of human flight. The last book written by renowned airline historian R.E.G. Davies, Airlines of the Jet Age is the ultimate resource for information and insight on modern air transport.