And now for a bit of COMET commentary from myself .... 
Some folk might be surprised to know/learn that the UK, BOAC, and the COMET 4, stole something of a march over the USA, PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS, and the B707 .... through launching what became the first "scheduled" commercial jetliner service across the North Atlantic and between London and New York on October 4th 1958 .... operated by COMET 4 G-APDB
Imediately prior to this PAN AMERICAN had spent considerable sums of money on a PR campaign promoting what "they believed" was going to become the very frst such commercial jetliner service .... and which had been scheduled for October 26th 1958 using its new B707-120 aircraft .... only to be "Beaten By The Brits" due to early delivery and service entry of 3 COMET 4 aircraft.
COMET 4 G-APDC then "clinched this historical victory" for BOAC by operating the first return New York/London commercial jetliner service on the same day.
Early trans-Atlantic services .... operated by B707-120, COMET 4, and DC8-30/40/50 aircraft .... usally required a tech/refuelling stop at either Gandar/New Foundland, Keflavik/Iceland, or Shannon/Ireland due to the range limitations of these aircraft .... particularly in regard to westbound services which were operated against the prevailing weather.
BOAC COMET 4 aircraft typically stopped at Gandar .... BUT .... on March 24th 1959 G-APDH managed to operate a non-stop London/New Yoork service taking adavantage of a favourable tail wind influence enroute.
BOAC's trans-Atlantic COMET 4 services .... on the London/New York/London route (only) were relatively short-lived .... being replaced by B707-420's in competition with PAN AM B707-320's on this most prestigeous of airline routes and from around 1961.
The COMET 4 remained in BOAC trans-Atlantic service though as new north American destinations soon beckoned .... in the form of Montreal from December 19th 1958, Toronto from March 1st 1960, and Boston from June 13th 1960.... all of which were also later superseded by the airlines B707-420 and VC10 aircraft.
Upon its withdrawal from BOAC trans-Atlantic service the COMET 4 was then relegated to the airlines far Eastern route network and service to the UK's far-flung dominion countries .... operating to Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Rangoon, Karachi, and Beirut .... and on to Sydney, and Auckland .... and later to Johannesburg from 1959 .... and then Madrid and Dakar, and on to the Latin American region .... serving Sao Paulo, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, and Santiago .... as well as the Middle East also with services to Abadan, Doha, and Kuwait commenicing during the very early 1960's.
BOAC COMET 4 aircraft were also leased to CENTRAL AFRICAN AIRWAYS, AIR CEYLON, AIR INDIA, and even to QANTAS AIRWAYS also .... When the Australian airlines original fleet of 6 early production turbojet powered B707-138 aircraft were each modified/upgraded to fanjet powered B707-138B standard.
The De Havilland Aircraft Company eventually delivered a total of 19 COMET 4 aircraft to BOAC, but, these aircraft were very quickly outclassed by both the B707 and DC8 .... which resulted in even BOAC, itself, needing to acquire B707's in order to remain competitive on the most prestigeous of air routes (the COMET 4 was good aircraft .... and a pioneering one too .... albeit disaterously at first .... but redeemed the types reputation through modification and then successful reintroduction to service, but, in terms of performance it couldn't compete with the larger. faster, and longer ranging US jetliners of the same era). BOAC's association with the COMET 4 was therefore relatively short .... in that these aircraft entered service with the airline during late 1958 but had been withdrawn from the airlines fleet and replaced by (by B707's and VC10's) by late 1965.
The last BOAC COMET 4 service operated between Auckland/New Zealand and London .... on its long-staging return flight back to the UK .... and which operated by G-APDE on November 25th 1965.
Upon its withdrawal from BOAC service the COMET 4 went on to make history .... becoming the first jet equipment of many of international airlines such as AEREA ECUADOR, AEROLINEAS ARGENTINAS, AIR CEYLON, EAST AFRICAN AIRLINES, KUWAIT AIRWAYS, CHANNEL AIRWAYS, GHANA AIRWAYS, MALAYSIA-SINGAPORE AIRLINES, MEXICANA DE AVIACION, and MIDDLE EAST AIRLINES.
BOAC, despite its early pioneering work in conjunction with the De Havilland Aircraft Company never operated the successive COMET 4B and -4C version aircraft .... and the proposed, even further modified, COMET 5 never left the De Havilland drawing board.
One can only imagine how the British aircraft industry might have prospered had tragedy not so fatefully intervened to prevent the COMET 1's early and triumphant ascent to continue unmolested. Leaders of modern technology are always first to prosper from their their trailblazing ingenuity .... but occasionally .... they also become the first to suffer the consequences their doing so .... and from which industry competitors will learn and ultimately benefit from. The COMET might never have become the commercially successful jetliner that was originally envisaged, but, in all its variants these aircraft represented world leading technology .... at the time. By its fall and subsequent rise the COMET did in fact path the way for world civil aviation, jetliner development in particular, and the greatly improved safety and comfort standards which are mostly taken for granted by so many of us today.
Mark C
AKL/NZ
