De Havilland Comet nostalgia time.

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24 years 2 months

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As well as visiting Concorde at East Fortune yesterday, I also took time to look round another iconic British airliner classic, the former Dan Air Comet 4c.

As East Fortune regulars will know, it's been there a long time in outdoor storage and who knows how long it's going to last, but for the time being she's still around and open for inspection.

I was the only one around so it was great having her all to myself for 10 mins or so. It's easy to drift back in time to the halcyon days of jet travel as you climb inside this marvel of British commercial aviation... :D

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 11,159

She could do with getting some of that indoor treatment like Concorde, ideally what East Fortune needs is more indoor storage space for aircraft like these. I'd love to see both planes displayed together indoors as two great British classics. :D

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20 years 10 months

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Outstaning Allen, that machine is so good looking! A timeless design just like Concorde.

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24 years 2 months

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Some more nice piccies from the museum Allen. Looks to have been kept in outstanding condition.

:)

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24 years 2 months

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Ah.... just look at those chair armrests with built in ashtrays, you just don't get that class anymore. :D

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21 years

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Love them photos, its a real shame we don't have a Comet flying as its one of the most important types ever built in the UK.

Sorry to hijack your thread Ren Frew but here is a photo of the Comet at Cosford.

http://uk-jets.me.uk/external05/cosfordmuseum/16.jpg

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20 years 11 months

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Seeing that BOAC Comet brings back a lot of memories for me. I used to ride my bike to the old Essendon Airport, which was Melbourne's No1 airport in those days, to watch the spectacular take off the BOAC Comet for London at 1 o'clock every saturday afternoon back in the fifties

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20 years 8 months

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A Beautiful design. I only ever flew on one - a BOAC Comet from Kano to Lagos Nigeria in 1962. I remember when BEA put Comets on the Edinburgh - Heathrow route in the late sixties, they could certainly make a hell of a noise taking off.

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19 years 8 months

Posts: 1,953

I also took time to look round another iconic British airliner classic, the former Dan Air Comet 4c.

Just being slightly picky for a moment, its actually a Comet C.4 - former Royal Air Force Transport Command aircraft.

Anyways, thanks for the nostalgia trip. I flew with Dan Air on Comet 4b G-APYD (now at the science museum, Wroughton) LGW-VCE and then on the East Fortune Comet's sister C.4 G-BDIV NAP-LGW back in 1978. Those were only my 3rd and 4th flights. Sitting over the wing, those Comets were quite noisy due to the close proximity of the engines and I well remember the landing at the dark and wet VCE when showers of sparks came out of the reversers! On boarding the return flight in NAP via the rear door, the RAF roundels on India Victor could still be discerned under the Dan Air paint - obviously all they'd done was slap another layer on top of the RAF livery.

Andy

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21 years

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Seeing that BOAC Comet brings back a lot of memories for me. I used to ride my bike to the old Essendon Airport, which was Melbourne's No1 airport in those days, to watch the spectacular take off the BOAC Comet for London at 1 o'clock every saturday afternoon back in the fifties

Did you ever take any photo's and if so could you post them here, I would love to see them ?

Aside from the Comet at Brunty are there anymore left that could be made airworthy again ?

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20 years

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The Comet is certainly a timeless design. I'm suprised to see that the interior is preserved in such a good condition. :)

Very Nice!

Stieglitz

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20 years 6 months

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Here are a few from the mozzies collection of Comet Nose sections.

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19 years 8 months

Posts: 1,953

Aside from the Comet at Brunty are there anymore left that could be made airworthy again ?

In the real world, probably not. I'd have thought though that it would be a question of money - the 4b at Wroughton (G-APYD) is probably the next best candidate as its the only one that's been continuously under cover since it was retired.

On the other hand, I have no doubt that the best preserved Comet in the world will soon be the 4 that is owned by the Museum of Flight in Seattle - it is currently at Everett but will supposedly be moved to Boeing Field eventually, presumably when they build the annex that will also house the number 1 747, their Concorde, etc. The effort that is going into restoring that Comet to "as built" condition just has to be seen to be believed.

Andy

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24 years 2 months

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Not very good quality I'm afraid but here is a pic of East Fortune's Comet touching down at EF after its final flight.

g45

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20 years 11 months

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Did you ever take any photo's and if so could you post them here, I would love to see them ?

No i didn't, although i probably owned a box brownie at the time, i can't recall ever taking any snaps

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19 years 5 months

Posts: 430

Thanks for those Ren Frew, the nostalgia quotient is huge, bringing back memories of trips to and from London and Khartoum on Sudan Airways Comets. I loved them and the BOAC VC10s - we always seemed to alternate between the two on our end of tour/start of tour trips.

No other aircraft come near, well, perhaps the Caravelle, or the 727.... *drifts away on fond memories*

I still have a Sudan Airways beer mat which tries to cajole tourists to visit! Those were the days.

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19 years 8 months

Posts: 1,953

Not very good quality I'm afraid but here is a pic of East Fortune's Comet touching down at EF after its final flight.

Notice the yellow BAA/Edinburgh airport old-style Ford Escort in that picture... Judging by what's been said about EDI here, I suspect that vehicle is still in service! :p

Andy

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24 years 2 months

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Beautiful photos of a beautiful aircraft. There are too few Comets (and indeed other classic airliners) preserved, when you consider the keenness for preserving historic military types. It is completely out of proportion, the airliners are as much a part of aviation history as the Lancaster, the Spitfire, Hurricane etc, but read any preservation and historic magazine and all you get are warbirds, all aviation museums have warbirds but very few have airliners. Those which do should be supported.

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19 years 9 months

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Did you ever take any photo's and if so could you post them here, I would love to see them ?

Aside from the Comet at Brunty are there anymore left that could be made airworthy again ?

The raf have The nimrod ,which is based on the Comet and they are still flying, noisy so and so's always wake me up when the do a low go around at Aberdeen :)

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21 years

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Oh yeah I just love the Nimrod noisy and smoky :)

Getting back to the Comet is there a website with a full list of surviving Comet's ?

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20 years 6 months

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Slightly off topic but this is all thats left of our dear old Hatfield,very sad!!! :mad:

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