60th Anniversary
02/05/12 22:00
Today's the day: the 60th anniversary of the first scheduled flight by commercial jet:
Comet 1
c/n 6003
G-ALYP
BOAC
First leg:
London to Beirut via Rome (arr. 6 minutes ahead of schedule).
Captain A M Majendie
First Officer J G Woodmill
Engineering Officer Walley Bennett
Radio Officer Bob Chandler
Steward Edward Charlewood
Stewardess Joan Nourse
Second leg:
Beirut to Khartoum via Cairo
Captain Trevor Marsden
First Officer K Emmott
Engineering Officer T Taylor
Radio Officer G Coutts
Steward A McCormack
Stewardess E Coutney
Final leg:
Khartoum to Johannesburg via Entebbe and Livingstone (25 minutes ahead of schedule)
Captain R Alabaster
First Officer D Whitham
First Officer Arterton
Engineering Officer Alan Johnson
Radio Officer R Dolman
Steward T Irwin
Stewardess A Cartmell
While circling Johannesburg, Captain Alabaster noticed that "all roads were jammed", and thought there must be some special event going on, before realising they'd come to see the Comet.
36 passengers paid £315 return; the equivalent of £7,800 today. It had one class: First Class. The whole journey took 23 hours 23 minutes including 6 stops, compared with 31 hours and 3 stops by Lockheed Constellation.
The fastest flight I could find ticket prices for is still British Airways, using what is currently the fastest commercial airliner, the Boeing 747. The flights are BA57 and BA54, taking 9 hours 22 minutes to fly non-stop from LHR to JNB, at a cost of £9,323 (First Class).
Many thanks to Martin Painter for gathering this information, which you will find (and more!) in his book: The DH.106 Comet, An Illustrated History, ISBN 0-85130-330-7.
--
GMM-P (02/05/2012)
