The first passenger plane in history comes back to life
A painstaking restoration has revived a DH106 1A Comet - the aircraft that ushered in the era of modern air travel.
The DH106 1A Comet, the world’s first commercial jet airliner, has been restored and put on display at the De Havilland Aeronautical Museum near London, bringing back to life a key piece of aviation history that forever transformed air travel.
Maiden commercial flight from London to South Africa
This pioneer of the skies first took off on May 2, 1952, from London Heathrow Airport, bound for Johannesburg, carrying the first paying passengers on a 7,000-mile flight. Although it was soon overshadowed by its structural flaws, the Comet marked the beginning of the commercial jet age.
The restored model, wingless but with an impeccable exterior design in Air France livery and an interior recreated down to the smallest detail, now allows visitors to imagine what it was like to fly in an aircraft that offered speed, altitude, and comfort never before seen.
“It’s a beautiful aircraft, even now after all these years,” says Eddie Walsh, a retired volunteer leading the DH106 restoration project. Walsh admits it was a daunting task: “It was practically mission impossible.”
In its day, the Comet was a marvel of design and technology: four Ghost jet engines integrated into the wings, separate bathrooms for men and women, rectangular panoramic windows, wooden tray tables, and spacious seats with chrome armrests. Even the overhead compartments were replaced with 3D-printed lamps with buttons to call the flight attendant. Everything was designed to offer a luxurious experience in the air, although only affordable for a minority: a ticket to Johannesburg cost the equivalent of almost $6,000 in today’s money.
However, that bright future quickly crumbled. Between 1953 and 1954, several fatal accidents led to the final retirement of the Comet 1A, after it was discovered that its fuselage could not withstand the repeated pressurization of high-altitude flights. Tests in water tanks revealed that cracks were forming around rivets and bolt holes, causing catastrophic structural failures mid-flight. “Too high, too fast, too soon, that was the problem,” Walsh summarizes.
The resurgence of the myth
Despite its flaws, the Comet left a profound mark on the industry. Later models, such as the Comet 4, solved the initial problems and flew successfully, but it was too late. Boeing and Douglas had already moved ahead with more efficient and safer models, and de Havilland lost its leadership, eventually being acquired by another British company. However, the experience and mistakes of the Comet served to make subsequent generations of aircraft more reliable and safer.
Today, the restoration of the DH106 at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum not only honors the pioneers who designed and flew it, but also offers a valuable lesson about the risks of unprecedented innovation. As Walsh says, “The Comet is famous for the problems it had, which is a bit unfair, because it was truly innovative in its time.” Its legacy, though brief in the air, has lived on in every aircraft that flies our skies.
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