Airplane forums

Kinda doubt it. The original Comets had a disconcerting tendency to blow up & fall out of the sky. The culprit was metal fatigue, caused by square cornered windows. Now you know why all modern jets have the round cornered windows. The Comet IVs, which were re-designed & fixed the really bad faults, came on the market about the same time as the 707 & DC-8, which were bigger & faster airplanes, & the Comet already had a "bad name", so they never really succeeded. The RAF used a variant of the design, the "Nimrod", I believe, for all sorts of duties-AWACs, anti-sub work, etc. The Comet may have been a commercial failure,but was a success in many other ways.-Sandy G.
 
AFAIK, Nimrods are still buzzing around doing mostly AWAC sorta duty.....I said Doody...heh heh (dad on Family Guy voice)

Always thought the Comets were one neat lookin critter have their air intakes on the leading edge of the wing (and the engines pretty much IN the wing instead of hanging under)

Don't know if it's still there, but there was a hulk of one sitting at O'Hare (Chicago) for the longest time, I guess they used it for rescue training purposes.....that's kinda ironic given the sordid history of these!
Anthony
 
Anthony- Yeah, seems like I remember seeing on "Wings" that even the Comet IV design was kinda small & wouldn't hold many people...the "buried engine" design was/is cool looking, but supposedly was a BEAR to work on. Think about it-you had the engine, the main spar, the landing gear, fuel lines, hydraulic lines, etc, etc all coming together right there. I'm thinking the early jets were prolly NOT anywhere near as reliable as what we have today-and don't forget, a lot of the stuff was prolly made by Jos. Lucas & Sons, Lord of Darkness<grin>-Sandy G.
 
Surely you can't be serious? I am serious- and stop calling me Shirley. Jimmy- do you like gladiator movies. I'll never get over Macho Grande. Win this one for the Zipper. Is this the right airplane forum? :no:
 
Yessiree, when I first learned that Puke-us (Lucas) manufactured avionics the first thing I did was install mirrors on the top of my shoes to keep a look out for falling aircraft.

You're correct in that maintenance musta been a nightmare, the layers of systems that would need to be removed for access probably made a Porsche Turbo look as simple as lawn mower. The later Vomits came with Rolls Royce/Avon injuns.

Say Joey, is Scraps a boy dog? Have you ever been in a Turkish prison? Have you ever seen a man naked?

Good lord, how UN-PC this movie is! No wonder it's in my top 10 favorites!

Anthony
 
@Sandy G: I sow something with Comet on Nationla Georgraphic and they told about the metal fatigue. That's why "De Havilland" Comet 4 had round winows. The maximum number of people that could get in a Comet 1 was 66.
Those cool looking jet motors caused more air friction. And if they expoled, the whole wing could pe turn apart... At the "Boeing" B 707 the wing could still remain intact even if the engine expolded. I a "Tom & Jeery" catoon (when that duck want to fly South) a Comet 4 apperad.
I hate those dumb guys who scrapped all the B 314. To turn ti the scrap the firts trasatlantic plane.
I want to find some pics of those big '30's passangers hidroplanes! They where flashy.
Unfourtnley for me the only time I flown for a vacation... :worried:
 
TC 3007- Y'all get National Geo channel there? How's about Discovery? A&E ?Animal Planet? BBC ? Are there any Soviet/Russian science /technical channels ? Interesting... Do you get Discovery "Wings" channel there? Think it's now morphed into the "Military" channel...-Sandy G.
 
We got "B.B.C.", "National Georgraphic", "Discovery", "Animal Planet", "Real Tv", "C.N.N".
For "Discovery" Traveling, Science, Civilisation you got to pat extra-cash.
We don't recive any Russian channel, and unfortnley I don't know Russian (except a few words!).
 
Wow- ain't that something ? I would have never thought it it-Are they in English or dubbed in Romanian? Ain't cable TV wonderful?!? Hell, pretty soon, you'll have McDonald's,Pizza hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken, all of 'em... Do many people their own houses or live in flatblocks? Here's an idea-if more own their own houses, try getting the franchise for yr country for "Home Depot"...It's a hardware/building supply store...they sell lumber, paint, flooring, windows, electrical components, etc, etc...In a big town like Bucharest, I'd say you could open a "Home Depot", & yr fortune would be made. A dinky town like Knoxville, Tn, has 2 of 'em & they stay PACKED w/people constantly.-Sandy G.
 
Neville Shute wrote a book about these planes. though it didn't directly name them. They figured out exactly how many hours they had before the hull failed and one of the planes was still in the air and would reach it's breaking point over the Atlantic. Can't remember the name, but it's a good read. Interesting how casual flight was in those days. You dressed in your best clothes and then just walked out to the plane. I remember those days as they faded away in the 70's, our local airport still made you walk out to the plane in '73-74, just checked your ticket and you were on. Of course when it rained it sucked I'm sure.
 
Ah yes, the Lockeed Constellation! One of the prettiest (if not THE prettiest) high capacity passenger prop plane ever. Notice how tall the landing gear is, that was because the propellers were so long that they needed the extra ground clearence.

Designed by (or for) Howard Hughes' TWA back in the late 30's....supposedly faster than even the Japanese Zero fighter plane! These birds were the last gasp of props before the jet age. http://www.conniesurvivors.com/

Anthony
 
Yep. Well "LOCKHEED Constellations", but that's what both of 'em are. John Travolta, the actor, singer, professional punk, is also a fervent plane addict-he has/had a beautifully restored 1958 Connie he used to fly himself. The saying around Connie pilots was "It takes a REAL MAN to handle 3 pieces of tail at once"...Guffaw, chortle, wink.Yeah, I can remember when I was a kid, my Dad never flew unless dressed in his best Sunday-go-to-meetin' suits-now,hell, if they've got on clean clothes, you're ahead of the game...-Sandy G.
 
Johnny boy currently owns and pilots his own 707, or so I understand. Maybe I too should become a Scientologist ;-)

Anthony
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Ol' Ken
Airplanes are better than women
Replies
6
Views
824
Reel 2 Reel
Reel 2 Reel
Telecolor 3007
Picture with old steel plants (works) (mills)
Replies
8
Views
568
Telecolor 3007
Telecolor 3007
Telecolor 3007
Conexion of old keyboards
Replies
15
Views
1K
Trawlerman
Trawlerman
Telecolor 3007
FM tubes broadcaster
Replies
0
Views
636
Telecolor 3007
Telecolor 3007
snookinman
300 tubes for $100.00
Replies
15
Views
3K
snookinman
snookinman
Back
Top Bottom