A Brief History of the Airlines and Air Cargo Industry (Part Four)

As the new jet powered airliners were being developed, there were changes being made worldwide to accomodate this new form of air travel. These new jets required longer runways, their heavier weights needed larger and more reinforced taxiways, aprons, and tarmacs. They were also noisier than piston airliners, and this reason required more remote or unpopulated areas in which to operate. So, major reconstruction projects were being undertaken in every major city to accomodate the new airplanes.

The airlines, were still paying for piston powered airliners in their fleets, in addition to these still in production. They were faced with not only paying for the new jets, in which each would cost several million dollars. As opposed to a brand new Douglas DC-7 piston powered type, which cost in the area of $700,000.00 US each. Add the cost of those jets, the expense of new hangers to maintain the bigger airplanes, the retraining of maintenance personnel and flight crews to the vastly different technology. Dont forget special tools, aircraft spares and replacement parts, including engines, tires etc. As these new airplanes were being concieved and developed, the major airlines were scrambling to secure the financing to support, and thus compete.

As previously mentioned, the British had more open minded about using jet power for civil use. By 1949 they had test flown a jet powered airliner called the Type 4, when the go ahead to produce it had been approved they renamed it the De Havilland DH-106 "Comet" I. Comet I had 36 seats, was 93 ft long and a wing span of 115 ft, and had begun its evaluation and testing.

The Canadian AVRO C-102 "Jetliner", which was also mentioned earlier flew just three weeks after the Comet I and at 82 ft long, was somewhat smaller than the British jet airliner. It had a wing span of 98 ft and could seat 36 as well. During its testing program, it broke all North American speed records for transport aircraft by exceeding 500 MPH. It was also the first jet powered airliner to fly in the US. It in addition, flew the first jet air mail in the world. It recieved approval from many US airlines including American and National. However, Trans Canada Airlines, who originally asked AVRO to build the C-101, decided that the new Canadian jet was too expensive to operate. Regardless of its performance, capability and genuine interest, the Canadian Government, which was funding this and the now famous "Arrow" fighter project put the ka-bosh to the whole thing.. A second Jetliner in production was abandoned and cut up for scrap.

US airline interest increased despite its cancellation, National Airlines ordered a small fleet, TWA ordered 30 and the USAF set aside funding to buy 20 of the AVRO Jetliners, for crew training. Even 'ole Howard Hughes, was so impressed that he offered to buy the jigs and have Convair build the airplanes under contract. But to no avail. It would disappear into obscurity, and be rarely mentioned in aviation history. All that remains, is that all jet powered airliners produced afterward would be referred to as "Jetliners".

The British DH-106 Comet I would inaugurate the first scheduled passenger jet flights in August 1952, being the first to do so. Its first operator being BOAC (now British Airways). Within one year, BOAC, was seeing load factors increase over 80%. Two additional airlines UAT and Air France had begun services. The Royal Canadian Air Force, had put two in operation. Orders for a new more powerful Comet II were recieved from four new customers in addition to additional aircraft from those airlines with Comet I's in their fleet.

As the Comet II was being produced De Havilland announced a 12 ft stretch and even more powerful version as the Comet III. This version would bring in a very important order from Pan American, who ordered three airplanes. As well, United Airlines, was very interested and was negotiating to purchase a fleet in late 1953.

On May 2 1953, a BOAC Comet I, broke-up in mid-air, 6 minutes from leaving Calcutta in bad weather, being fatal to all on-board. The cause was attributed to the weather and possible effects of down drafts from the storm.

During October 1953, a BOAC Comet I ran off the runway with no injuries. The airplane was toast however.

In late November 1953, another Comet I, on its delivery flight, a Canadian Pacific airplane, failed to take off from Karachi, killing all 11 crew and a number of De Havilland technicians. This was the airlines first Comet jet.

These runway accidents. forced the grounding of all Comets, and necessary modifications were made to the leading edges of the wings to improve take off performance, to both those aircraft in service and in production. They were returned to service in early January 1954.

This presumably easy fix was short lived however, when on January 24, 1954 a BOAC Comet I, was 20 minutes from Rome at 26,000 ft, the pilot was in a radio conversation with another BOAC flight in the area, he was cut off in mid-sentence, as the Comet I broke-up in mid-air in clear weather and crashed in the Mediterranean Sea near Elba Island, with the loss of 35 passengers.

BOAC, again recalled their Comets for examination. With the theory that a turbine blade has broken from the engine and punctured a fuel tank and caused an explosion. BOAC, made 50 changes, including reinforcing the areas around the engine and fuel tanks. The Comets returning to service on March 23, 1954.

Sixteen days later, on April 8, 1954, a BOAC Comet I, chartered by South African Airways, departed Rome with 14 passengers and crew enroute to Cairo. At 20 minutes after take off, broke-up in mid-air and crashed into deep water.

Again theorys ranging from fuel tank explosions to a collision with a UFO (Really!!!) were discussed. This time, the truth had to be discovered, for sure. All Comets in operation were grounded, and further production stopped at this point.

The investigation that would follow, would establish the basis on which all air accidents would be conducted, right up to the present.

Due to the lastest accident occurring in deep water. It was impossible to recover under 1954 technology. So, the investigation centered on the earlier Elba Island accident, which also crashed under mysterious circumstances. Although it was a pain staking effort, almost all the wreckage was recovered. During this recovery, BOAC, donated a Comet I for testing under in-flight conditions. Being flown unpressurized by a Royal Air Force crew, to test if aerodynamics, aircraft control or other mechanical events caused these crashes. The "Black Boxes (Cockpit Voice Recorder/Flight Data Recorder) had not been invented yet. This investigation was also the catalyst for their existence.

The initial investigation of the wreckage revealed, a stress fracture from the base of an antenna to the corner of a square passenger cabin window. Wing damage also supported evidence of a stress fracture. The coroners report, confirmed that the passengers died instantly.

A second BOAC Comet I was donated, the wings removed and emersed in a tank of water to test various pressure loads on the fuselage or body of the aircraft. After a period of time, explosive decompression occured at a corner of a cabin window. These results were revealed in the fall of 1954.

Although the studies revealed the cause. Its was also confirmed that the design and construction of the Comet exceeded known limits at the time. The key here, that known limits were based on piston engine technology, where lower altitudes and speeds did not create the levels of stress incurred on the De Havilland DH-106 Comet.

In short, all jet airliners produced since Comet, and that includes all Boeing and Airbus aircraft currently in use, do not have square corners on their passenger windows. This being a visual reminder. Of course there are many lessons that were learned, that lie deep within the structure of the airplane.

The grounding, and redesign of the Comets in production would delay its re-introduction. In addition the cherished Pan American order was cancelled, as was further discussion with United for further Comet orders.

In the US and elsewhere, jet airliner development had slowed down somewhat, in anticpation of the findings of the accident investigations. After the world heard the findings, things began to speed up.

Quite surprisingly, the Soviets, were to produce the second passenger Jet airliner into service. The Tupolev TU-104, which was based on the TU-16 "Badger" bomber.

Boeing, who had been working on a jet powered version of the Model 367 program. This same program produced the famous B-377 Statocruiser Piston airliner, mentioned prevoiusly. This jet airplane was developed to provide mid-air refuelling capability to the USAF jet bombers. The first jet tanker was the Model 367-80 or "Dash 80". And like its piston fore-runner the "Dash 80" was already being considered as a civil airliner by Boeing.

After the USAF had accepted the Dash 80 as the prototype for the KC-135 Jet Tanker, Boeing had the aircraft certified as N70700.

The name "707" was based on the Boeing model number for Passenger jet aircraft. The 300 series were for the piston powered types, these included the 307 Stratoliner (1940) 314 Clippers and the 377 Statocruiser. The first jet should have been the Boeing 700, but the name 707 sounded better, so they went with it. (really!!!).

Boeing had lots of interest, but no buyers. Possibly due to the recent Comet accidents, both the public and the airlines were leary of any jet airliners potential. However, the aircraft producer was so confident of its success they decided to go it alone. Boeing had "bet the farm", by investing 14 million dollars US to develop the new 707.

During the testing program, a fly-by of the new 707 prototype was scheduled over a crowd of one million people, gathered for the annual fourth of July celebration at Seatlle Harbor. To help show off, Mr Bill Allen, the President of Boeing was present to see the show. He had invited Mr Juan Trippe, President of Pan Am to attend the event, with the intent to sell Boeings new jet.

If Boeing could sell Pan American, the airplane would be a success, since the big international airline, had tremendous influence on the entire worldwide airline industry. An order would obviously influence all the rest of the airlines. At the same time Douglas had announced that it too would begin working on its own jet airliner, called the model 1881. Since Douglas was the leading producer of airliners since the DC-3, the sales of the new 707 were critical for Boeing to remain in business, since they had invested all their funds into the new jet.

As the Dash 80, was being used as a test for the new 707, it was used for the fly-by. The pilot was "Tex" Hill, and knowing the importance of this demonstration, took the Dash 80 through a "Barrel Roll" maneuver over the crowd. At that point Juan Trippe, looked over to Bill Allen and said "We'll take 20". The order was later increased to 25 Boeing 707's. He would also order 25 of the new Douglas Model 1881, on the same day, by this time its name was changed to the Douglas DC-8.

With the airlines influencing configurations, the original Dash 80 prototype would only serve as a test aircraft. The actual 707 would be longer and wider to accomodate up to 130 passengers in six-abreast seating. Thus being equal to the DC-8. Both aircraft would utilize the same type of engines and be availiable in various models to suit specific needs, such as seating, range etc. Each company would introduce the medium range model initially and add the different variants later.

The Soviet Tu-104 began service within the USSR in September of 1956. And the only AVRO C-101 Jetliner in existence was cut up for scrap on December 10, 1956.

The first trans-atlantic jet service began between London and New York via Gander Newfoundland, by a BOAC De Havilland DH-106 Comet 4 on October 4, 1958. This was followed by a Pan American Boeing 707-121 on October 28, 1956, flying the same route in the opposite direction.

Although the Comet had a very tragic past, and an insuing bad reputation as a result. It went on to be a terrific airplane, and served well until 1980, with a number of foreign airlines. The original "Dash 80" would go on to provide innovation, and contribute to the development of a whole "family" of Boeing jet airliners, in the coming years.