"Spiv" wrote in message
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"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
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"Spiv" wrote in message
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The Comet is still flying (the Nimrod) . The last civilian plane was
in
1987. That is a long civilian service life. The British government
prevented one of the last from being sold to the USA.



This means the last Comet retired from service while the
Boeing 707 line was still producing new aircraft since the
last 707 rolled off the lines in 1991.

Think about it.

I did and the Comet was introduction for longer being about 10 years ahead
of the 707 - a pioneering ground breaking plane.


Hardly

The Comet I entered passenger service in late 1952 and carried only 36
passengers, the remaining fleet was permanently grounded in early 1954
by which time 5 out of the 9 built had crashed

The Comet 4 didnt enter service until April 1958 only a few months
ahead of the 707-120

History will show it far
more important to aircraft advancement than the 707.

It has the distinction of being the first but the simple fact is that
Boeing made a shed load of money selling over 1000 aircraft
and went on to build almost 3/4 of the airliners in service
in western markets by the early 90's

DeHavilland sold a grand total of 46 Comet 4 aircraft

Keith