Comet, England, UK - a photo on Flickriver

Comet, England, UK

G-APDK was a Mk4 Comet airliner which entered service with BOAC on 15th September 1966. After being leased to East African Airways as 5Y-ALD it returned to Dan Air in March 1970 and last flew on 07th May 1973. It was presented to Lasham Air Scouts as a scout hut as seen here but was scrapped in September 1980. I actually flew on this aircraft from Venice to Gatwick in 1967.

The de Havilland DH 106 Comet was the world's first commercial jetliner. Developed and manufactured by de Havilland at its Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, the Comet 1 prototype first flew in 1949. It featured an aerodynamically clean design with four de Havilland Ghost turbojet engines buried in the wing roots, a pressurised cabin, and large square windows. For the era, it offered a relatively quiet, comfortable passenger cabin and was commercially promising at its debut in 1952.

The Comet 4 was a further improvement on the stretched Comet 3 with even greater fuel capacity. The design had progressed significantly from the original Comet 1, growing by 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m) and typically seating 74 to 81 passengers compared to the Comet 1's 36 to 44 (119 passengers could be accommodated in a special charter seating package in the later 4C series). The Comet 4 was considered the definitive series, having a longer range, higher cruising speed and higher maximum takeoff weight. These improvements were possible largely because of Avon engines with twice the thrust of the Comet 1's Ghosts. Deliveries to BOAC began on 30 September 1958 with two 48-seat aircraft, which were used to initiate the first scheduled transatlantic services.

Dan-Air (Dan Air Services Limited) was an airline based in the United Kingdom and a wholly owned subsidiary of London shipbroking firm Davies and Newman. It was started in 1953 with a single aircraft. Initially, it operated cargo and passenger charter flights from Southend (1953–1955) and Blackbushe airports (1955–1960) using a variety of piston-engined aircraft before moving to a new base at London Gatwick Airport in 1960, followed by expansion into inclusive tour (IT) charter flights and all-year round scheduled services. The introduction of two de Havilland Comet series 4 jet aircraft in 1966 made Dan-Air the second British independent airline after British United Airways to begin sustained jet operations. Following unsuccessful attempts to merge Dan-Air with a competitor, the ailing airline was sold to British Airways in 1992 for the nominal sum of £1.

Lasham Airfield is an aerodrome located 3.6 miles (5.8 km) north-west of Alton in Hampshire, England, in the village of Lasham.

It was built in 1942 and was a RAF Station during the Second World War, many significant operations being flown from it. The RAF ceased operations at Lasham in 1948, but a military aircraft company, General Aircraft Ltd, continued to fly from the airfield. From 1951 the main activity at Lasham airfield became recreational gliding.

The airfield is now owned by the largest British gliding club, also one of the world's largest, Lasham Gliding Society (LGS). It is also the location for 2Excel Engineering Ltd., a company that maintains large jet aircraft.

www.danairremembered.com/comet.php

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Comet

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan-Air

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasham_Airfield

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Hampshire (show map)

Taken on: June 21, 1975

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Comet

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Groups appears in: • PICS & FACTS • British Transport Aircraft (no Concorde)

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