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Soui's fine Comet post reminded me just how incredibly beautiful that aircraft design was. I couldn't resist taking one up for a quick shoot. I threw in a ? flying over ? just for fun.. Anyone know what the Comet's main design fault was?....caused many to crash until discovered.

the main cause of the comets crashing was the windows, as they were rectangular at first instead of oval they would be prone to cracking.
the comet looks like its flying over greece too.

and its an mb339 of the frecce triclori over italy i think?

Great shots Clip

Nemo.......

the main cause of the comets crashing was the windows, as they were rectangular at first instead of oval they would be prone to cracking.
the comet looks like its flying over greece too.

and its an mb339 of the frecce triclori over italy i think?

Great shots Clip

Nemo.......

interesting how the windows look round in the shot's

interesting how the windows look round in the shot's

The first run of Comets all had square windows.

If I recall correctly, another fatal flaw were the little windows on the roof, they were riveted in (instead of glued, like most jet aircraft windows were), and were also square. That, combined with the stresses of many flights on its notoriously thin aluminium skin, led to fatigue cracks that grew rapidly. Over time, the cracks got to the point where the entire fuselage would bust open, and tear the plane to shreds in mid-air.

The Cause of all the crashes was Metal Fatigue. If I remember correctly it was an unknown phenomenom in Aviation untill The Comet came around.

Nemo was partly correct though as the Fatigue Occured around the windows and had the be rectangular the there would have been less problems.

In the original Comet design as stated the windows were square. De Havilland did not understand metal fatigue as well as Vickers and produced a poorly designed fuselage, The a/c actually flew very well.  The subsequent grounding of the a/c and study of metal fatigue allowed Boeing time to produce the 707 and also benefit from the fatigue research done.  The later Comets were well liked and flew for many years.
Vololiberista

Volo, that pic reminds me of the HP Victor, I think its the front.

Volo, that pic reminds me of the HP Victor, I think its the front.

The front should remind you of the Aerospatiale Caravelle, and vice versa!

If I recall correctly, another fatal flaw were the little windows on the roof

Indeed, and it was the roof lights that failed.

She was a beautiful aircraft,  Great shots!

[quote]Soui's fine Comet post reminded me just how incredibly beautiful that aircraft design was. I couldn't resist taking one up for a quick shoot. I threw in a ? flying over ? just for fun.. Anyone know what the Comet's main design fault was?....caused many to crash until discovered.

Indeed, and it was the roof lights that failed.

When they did the first pressure test in a water tank it was in fact a passenger window that failed!!!!!

Compare the construction of the Comet with the VC10 in which the fuselage panels were milled out of solid metal into their curved shape!!!!!
Vololiberista

Very cool shots! Where did you find that MB339? Been looking for a Freeware one for a while now

Ashar, I'll forward you the link to-nite when i get home. Thanks all for your comments....aircraft id..done  :) , location?

Could the location be Venice?

Nice try Harold, but nyet, no, nein.... keep trying and i'll post a hint this evening...