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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that flies the friendly skies of history one day

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Speaker 1: at a time. I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode,

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Speaker 1: we're looking at the dawn of the jet age, including

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Speaker 1: why it took so long for airlines to ditch their

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Speaker 1: old propellers and why some came to regret it once

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Speaker 1: they did. The day was July twenty seventh, nineteen forty nine,

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Speaker 1: the world's first jet powered airliner made its inaugural test flight.

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Speaker 1: Dubbed the DH one oh six Comet, the prototype jetliner

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Speaker 1: was built by British aviation veteran Jeffrey de Haviland. Like

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Speaker 1: many others in the aviation industry, to Haviland believed the

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Speaker 1: jet engine could revolutionize commercial flight, allowing airlines to transport

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Speaker 1: more passengers in less time and for less money than

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Speaker 1: they ever could with piston engine planes. Everyone knew that

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Speaker 1: the jet engine was the future of the industry, just

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Speaker 1: as it had been for military aircraft. But to make

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Speaker 1: that future a reality, someone had to take the difficult

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Speaker 1: first step of adapting the technology for use in passenger planes.

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Speaker 1: Jeffrey to Havelin took on that challenge, and one of

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Speaker 1: his earliest victories was that pioneering flight on the evening

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Speaker 1: of July twenty seventh. Commercial aviation began with air mail

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen tens. It was tough going at first,

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Speaker 1: but once airlines started receiving government contracts to deliver the

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Speaker 1: mail business really took off. Many early airlines tried transporting

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Speaker 1: passengers as well, but since you can't fit many seats

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Speaker 1: on a propeller driven byplane, the flights usually cost more

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Speaker 1: money than they made. If commercial air travel was ever

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Speaker 1: going to be sustainable, airlines would need bigger, faster, and

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Speaker 1: more reliable planes, and for that they'd have to wait

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Speaker 1: another thirty years or so to be clear. The aviation

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Speaker 1: industry made all sorts of strides during nineteen thirty and

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty, with the development of the jet engine being

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Speaker 1: chief among them. Unlike the piston engines of old, jet

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Speaker 1: engines have relatively few moving parts that not only made

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Speaker 1: them easier and cheaper to maintain, but also safer and

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Speaker 1: more reliable to operate. Another advantage is that jet engines

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Speaker 1: run on kerosene, which is cheaper and much less volatile

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Speaker 1: than gasoline. Kerosene's higher flash point also allows it to

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Speaker 1: burn with greater power and efficiency when compared to gas,

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Speaker 1: and it's that unique quality that made jet propulsion feasible.

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Speaker 1: By burning kerosene, the engine produced an enorse misamount of thrust,

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Speaker 1: enough to propel aircraft much bigger and heavier than those

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Speaker 1: with piston engines. That sounds like a dream come true

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Speaker 1: for commercial airlines. The only problem was all of that

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Speaker 1: advancement came through the design of military aircraft, and even

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Speaker 1: after World War II ended, commercial aviation was still limited

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Speaker 1: to mostly propeller driven planes, albeit much larger once than

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Speaker 1: those of the nineteen tens and twenties. There are a

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Speaker 1: few reasons why the industry was so slow to adopt

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Speaker 1: the jet engine. Although kerosene was cheaper and more efficient

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Speaker 1: than gas, a jetliner would have to consume a lot

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Speaker 1: of it, which in turn would drive up operating costs.

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Speaker 1: Another issue was that jets took off at a slower

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Speaker 1: speed than propeller planes, meaning that all the existing runways

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Speaker 1: would have to be extended, once again driving up costs.

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Speaker 1: The jet powered future had apparently stalled before it even arrived,

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Speaker 1: and for a while, no one seemed willing to give

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Speaker 1: it the push it needed. That finally changed, though, in

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine, when British aircraft designer Jeffrey de Haveland

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Speaker 1: made that all important first move. Inspired by the Wright brothers,

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Speaker 1: de Haveveland had built and piloted his first plane back

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Speaker 1: in nineteen ten when he was twenty seven years old.

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Speaker 1: He then went on to work for British aircraft manufacturers

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Speaker 1: before starting his own company in nineteen twenty. The de

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Speaker 1: Haveland Aircraft Company quickly became an industry leader thanks to

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Speaker 1: its development of lighter engines and more streamlined planes. During

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Speaker 1: World War Two, de Havevelin designed several fighter planes for

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Speaker 1: the Royal Air Force, including the Tiger Moth biplane and

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Speaker 1: the twin engine Mosquito. Around the same time, Germany became

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Speaker 1: the first country to use jet fighters, debuting an experimental

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Speaker 1: prototype in nineteen thirty nine. When the war was over,

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Speaker 1: and after being knighted for his contributions in nineteen seen

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Speaker 1: forty four, Sir Jeffrey de Haviland decided to take a

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Speaker 1: page from Germany and turned his attention to jets. However,

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Speaker 1: he didn't want to build just another fighter plane. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he set his sights on the development of a new

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Speaker 1: kind of passenger plane, the world's first jet powered airliner

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Speaker 1: or jetliner. It took several years of design work to

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Speaker 1: bring the idea to fruition, but by the summer of

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Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine, the DH one oh six Comet was

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Speaker 1: ready for its maiden flight. The Comet prototype was an

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Speaker 1: all metal, low wing monoplane powered by four jet engines.

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Speaker 1: At a little over one hundred feet in length, it

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Speaker 1: was roughly the size of a small Boeing seven thirty seven.

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Speaker 1: It had a four person cockpit, and although cabin seats

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Speaker 1: weren't installed on the prototype, later models would include about

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Speaker 1: forty or so. The test flight took place at the

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Speaker 1: Hatfield Aerodrome in England on July twenty seventh, nineteen forty nine.

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Speaker 1: The plane was piloted by former Group Captain John kats

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Speaker 1: Eyes Cunningham, a wartime flying ace who happened to be

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Speaker 1: celebrating his thirtieth birthday that evening. Cunningham and his crew

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Speaker 1: took the plane up to ten thousand feet, then descended

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Speaker 1: to fly one hundred feet above the runway for all

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Speaker 1: their colleagues to see, and finally landed safely after thirty

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Speaker 1: one minutes in the air. Following that historic flight, the

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Speaker 1: de Haveveland Comet went through three more years of test

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Speaker 1: trials involving multiple prototypes. It finally entered service on May second,

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty two, when the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation or

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Speaker 1: BOAC began the world's first commercial jet service. The inaugural

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Speaker 1: flight of the forty four seat Comet one A took

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Speaker 1: paying customers from London, England, to Johannesburg, South Africa. With

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Speaker 1: a cruising speed of four hundred and eighty miles per hour,

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Speaker 1: the Comet was the the fastest plane of its size

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Speaker 1: at the time, yet its passengers noted that it was

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Speaker 1: quieter and didn't vibrate as much as planes powered by pistons.

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Speaker 1: They also appreciated the roomy seats and cabin, highlighting the

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Speaker 1: importance placed on passenger comfort, a bygone concept today. With

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Speaker 1: a ringing endorsement from early customers and the promise of

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Speaker 1: lower airfares to come, the jetliner was poised to take

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Speaker 1: commercial aviation to the next level. In the years that followed,

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Speaker 1: the d Haveaveland Comet became the cornerstone of the British

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Speaker 1: commercial fleet, but other countries began building jetliners of their own,

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Speaker 1: with manufacturers like Boeing, Douglas, Tupelev and Caravel leading the way. Sadly,

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Speaker 1: the commercial success of the Comet line proved short lived.

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Speaker 1: It turned out that the early models suffered from structural problems,

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Speaker 1: leading to a number of fatal accidents during the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifties. In fact, the same plane that made that

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Speaker 1: first flight to Johannesburg was also one of the first

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Speaker 1: passenger jets to crash. It went down in the Mediterranean

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Speaker 1: Sea on January tenth, nineteen fifty four, killing all thirty

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Speaker 1: five souls on board. Investigators later determined that the plane

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Speaker 1: had broken apart in mid air due to metal fatigue

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Speaker 1: brought on by the repeated changes in cabin pressure during

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Speaker 1: takeoffs and landings. Unfortunately, this wasn't an isolated problem. The

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Speaker 1: Comet series was involved in several other fatal crashes between

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three and nineteen fifty four, which ultimately led

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Speaker 1: to the entire fleet being grounded. De Havevelin spent four

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Speaker 1: years correcting the design flaws, but by the time the

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Speaker 1: company debuted its better safer Comet in nineteen fifty eight,

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Speaker 1: the moment had passed. American manufacturers Boeing and Douglas had

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Speaker 1: cornered the market into Havevelin's absence, and the British company

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Speaker 1: was never fully able to shake the stick of its

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Speaker 1: early crashes. In total, thed Haveaveland Aircraft Company built one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen Comets, including prototypes, in a production cycle

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Speaker 1: that lasted from nineteen forty nine to nineteen sixty four.

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Speaker 1: Some models in the Comet line continued to be used

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Speaker 1: by commercial airlines for nearly two decades after they were discontinued,

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Speaker 1: with the last one remaining in service until the early

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. The d Haveaveland Comet experienced many firsts in

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Speaker 1: its brief lifetime. It was the first jetliner to take

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Speaker 1: to the skies, to enter commercial service, and to cross

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Speaker 1: the Atlantic, but it was also the first to be

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Speaker 1: involved in a fatal crash, proof that being the first

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Speaker 1: can lead to disgrace just as it can to glory.

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Speaker 1: But although the Comet's reputation was forever tarnished, modern air

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Speaker 1: travel still owes it a great debt. Today, air travel

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Speaker 1: is considered the safest mode of travel in the world,

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Speaker 1: with the chances of being in a FA crash at

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Speaker 1: around one and eleven million, according to Harvard researchers. A

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Speaker 1: statistic like that would have been unimaginable in the nineteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: and without daring pioneers like to Haviland and the rest

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Speaker 1: of the comic team, it still would be today. I'm

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Speaker 1: Gabe Luzia and hopefully you now know a little more

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Speaker 1: about history today than you did yesterday. If you have

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Speaker 1: a second and you're so inclined, consider following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at TDI HC Show, And if you have

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Speaker 1: any feedback you'd like to share, feel free to send

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Speaker 1: it my way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing the show,

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Speaker 1: and thanks to you for listening. I'll see you back

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Speaker 1: here again tomorrow for another day in History class