"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
...

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


The Comet was first in service, but just barely the first to fly. The Avro
C-102 made it's first flight on August 10, 1949, just two weeks after the
Comet.