DH Comet 1 Prototype

The nose-less fuselage is almost certainly G-ALVG. Very sad to think that this most significant airframe wasn’t preserved when its rival, the Boeing 707 prototype, managed a better fate.

No, best not mention that one. Enough to make you weep ?

Even worse that the first Mk.2 G-AMXA/ XK655, referred to by l.garey above, was scrapped in the ’90s! C

Let’s not mention XK699 then….

The Comet 1 fuselage, F-BGNX has recently been repositioned at the de Havilland Museum, ready to go into the new hangar this week. That has come a very long way since my days at the museum; from a completely (to the last nut and bolt) stripped out shell, it now has a complete cockpit, and much of the cabin is also furnished. A remarkable transformation.

Bruce

Very nice. Great to see that there is still access to the cockpit 🙂

Photos from last year:

DSC_3548_resize by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr

DSC_3541_resize by Jelle Hieminga, on Flickr

 I must admit that it seems strange that major parts of the world’s first two purpose-built jet airliners were sent for scrap as late as the late 60s/early 70s but ho hum, what;s done has been done.

Even worse that the first Mk.2 G-AMXA/ XK655, referred to by l.garey above, was scrapped in the ’90s! Certainly it’s location at Strathallan didn’t make it easy to save – incapable of being flown out and therefore requiring a long road trip on small country roads sealed it’s fate (and that of Shackleton VP293). Good that the cockpits sections survived, at least and nice to see the Comet one back in its BOAC scheme.

A bit of digging has disclosed that the Comet clubhouse fuselage I referred to earlier in this thread was the second prototype G-ALZK, with some additions from an unidentified ex-RAF Comet.
I must admit that it seems strange that major parts of the world’s first two purpose-built jet airliners were sent for scrap as late as the late 60s/early 70s but ho hum, what’s done has been done.

https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1194223

You might be thinking of the Comet 4c at the Museum of Flight in Seattle (XA-NAR) which is ex Mexicana Airlines?

The Comet nose at the Al Mahatta museum in Sharjah, UAE. looks superb!! Thanks for the photo. I remember this well from the Gatwick spectators viewing area. Now just need the HP Herald to be restored to such a standard. If memory serves me well isn’t there a D.H Comet somewhere in Mexico? 

Bruce, thanks for that information. It’s jogged my memory that it was Martin Painter that I exchanged emails with years ago and who fed me the information about the fuselages’ identities.

Although not in the UK and not the prototype, one might mention the nose and cockpit of Mk 2R XK655 (the former first production Comet 2 G-AMXA) that is housed, and well looked after, in the Al Mahatta museum in Sharjah, UAE. It is the one that damaged its undercarriage landing at Strathallen and was finally scrapped, except the front end that was on the roof at Gatwick for ten years from 1995. Now in BOAC colours after a very nice restoration.

Laurence

The two in the picture are F-BGNX on the left, and G-ALYW on the right.

‘YW survives, but heavily modified, having been converted into a Nimrod mock up for the Exhibition flight. Last heard of in Holland I think.

The partial fuselage may have been the prototype.

de Havilland Museum also have the nose of G-ANAV, ex CF-CUM.

Information courtesy of the Martin Painter book, published by Air Britain. A while since I opened its covers!!

Bruce

I recall seeing one cocooned fuselage at Farnborough in ’78, from memory it was from the western end of the crowd line and the aircraft was around where the TAG Engineering hangars are now. That was supposed to be F-BGNX.

There was quite a dump, I think the remains of the Staines Trident PI were visible from the north side of the airfield during an earlier visit in ’77.  On that occasion we were treated to a aerobatic practice by Neil Williams’ Jungmann, presumably flown by the Maestro himself.

By the late 1960s, there were four Comet 1 remains to be seen at Farnborough. Two cocooned fuselages, a fuselage in BOAC markings in use as some sort of clubhouse, and a truncated centre fuselage.
In the early 2000s I exchanged a few emails with a Comet researcher. Unfortunately, they’ve vanished into an internet black hole, so I’ve got to go from my memory.
The gist of the information  was that F-BGNX, now at Salisbury Hall, was one of the cocooned fuselages. The other cocooned fuselage was identified, although I’ve forgotten the details, and the incomplete fuselage was reckoned to be a surviving chunk of the prototype G-ALVG. The identity of the clubhouse was still a mystery, though.
I took the attached picture at the 1968 Farnborough, with the possible remains of G-ALVG in the background . The next show I attended was 1974, by when there was nothing to be seen apart from a fuselage in the far distance somewhere at the Laffans Plain end.
Can anyone else throw some more light on things?

The cockpit of mk 4 XV814 ( G-APDF ) still exists afaik, it was in private ownership and had been converted into a full scale flight simulator

And the cockpit of 4C G-BEEX, at the North East Land, Sea and Air Museums, Sunderland .

Also cockpit of XV148, which was built as a Comet but converted to a Nimrod prototype

OH Boscome Down museum have a MK2 front fuse!

Interesting Question.

At the DH museum there are 3 noses (1 MK1, a Mk2 and a MK4) and a Fuselage (MK1)

The Raf museum has a modified MK1 at cosford

The Science museum have a MK4 in store

Duxford and East Fortune have MK4s on display 

Bruntingthrope have a Running MK 4

Brain cant remember any others at the moment but im sure someone will correct me.  

Just how many Comets including cockpits survive in the UK?

There is indeed a MK1 at the DH museum i spent a happy summer spraying anti corrosion wax over the inside in places such as the luggage bay and equipment bay. 

My avatar is of her before the current restoration got really going. If you haven’t visited please do in the new year to see the progress on the whole museum (but especially the Comet 🙂 )