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Introduced in 1952, the de Havilland Comet was the first commercial passenger jetliner to enter service, years before the introduction of other jetliners. Initially seen as a major landmark in aeronautical engineering, after intermittent operation and structural failures, service and production were canceled until airframe-engineering deficiencies could be corrected. As a result, after many years of redesigning, the much-improved, lengthened, Comet 4 was finally delivered to BOAC in 1958. Shortly after, the airline inaugurated regular transatlantic jet service from London to New York with one refueling stop in Newfoundland. BEA inaugurated shorter-range Comet 4B service on its Tel Aviv to London route in April 1960. The Comet 4 cruised at five hundred miles an hour and comfortably accommodated up to eighty-one passengers, but ultimately, could not compete with the Boeing 707 or the Douglas DC-8. See "Aviation Evolutions: The Jim Lund 1:72 Scale Model Airplane Collection", which features more than 200 models, on display, pre-security, in the Aviation Museum. http://ow.ly/amRj50jff4P . . . This image was posted on September 28, 2018.

This post mentions the following things involved with the SFO Museum collection: