Society of Friends of the Fleet Air Arm Museum Talk Evening
Alistair Hodgson – The de Havilland Comet airliner – the 75th anniversary of her maiden flight.
This October sees the welcome return of Alistair Hodgson.
Seventy-five years ago, the de Havilland DH106 Comet made its maiden flight: as the world’s first jet airliner, it revolutionised air travel. But the aircraft had significant design flaws, and these led to several fatal accidents: while the popular belief is that the Comet’s square windows were the cause of the crashes, the reality is much more complicated and this talk will look at the true causes of the disasters.
Following re-design, the Comet enjoyed a successful career and its iconic shape has inspired many preservation projects on surviving airframes, some of which we will look at more closely.
Alistair Hodgson is an engineer and is the former Curator of the de Havilland Aircraft Museum in Hertfordshire: he is currently the Curator of a small museum in the old Headquarters of the de Havilland Company at Hatfield. His particular interest is naval aviation and he is restoring a Sea Venom fighter at the de Havilland Museum.Book Talk