Word: comets
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...seemed by contrast almost a pennant winner. But on its own merits, it just squeezed into first division: its special contribution, indeed, was its notable number of pretty good evenings. There was nowhere a distinguished new drama or a brilliant new comedy; no new playwright flashed down like a comet to assume the look of a fixed star. Glaringly few established playwrights were represented, and none with distinction. Nor was there a truly good revival-or even much revived...
Home from Ceylon. The decision was a bitter one for De Havilland. Of the 33 Comet II's (worth $46 million) on order, three were already finished and being test-flown in preparation for delivery to British airlines in four months. Fourteen more were more than half finished. Production was just starting on eleven orders (worth $25 million) for Comet III, with three of the planes ticketed for Pan American World Airways, the only U.S. carrier ever to order foreign aircraft. But De Havilland had no choice. In the last two years, four of the 21 Comet...
Last week the last Comet overseas flew home from Ceylon without passengers, cruising at a relatively low 20,000 ft. De Havilland, which had first thought of sending test pilots aloft as human guinea pigs to duplicate the Italian crash conditions, has decided against it. Instead, it put mechanics to work taking apart two complete BOAC Comets, checking every part from trim tabs to turbine blades. At the R.A.F. test station at Farnborough, other experts examined the salvaged wreckage of the first Italian crash last January, including all four engines...
...Havilland has reported no clues. But there were dozens of possibilities. British airmen were inclined to discount the theory first advanced that a flying turbine blade had caused the wing fuel tanks to explode, since the last Comet to crash had special armor between engines and tanks (TIME, March 22). Most think it more likely that either the kerosene-type fuel, which becomes highly volatile at high altitudes, exploded, or that vapor from a leaking hydraulic line might have been touched off by a spark. Others guessed that the big jet's power-operated controls, which give the pilot...
Plane Shortage. Whatever the reason, De Havilland's troubles are a serious blow to Britain's brave experiment to capture the lead in jet transports. The grounding of the Comets leaves British Overseas Airways with only 43 planes, half U.S.-built, for its worldwide routes. BOAC has been forced to close down its South American routes, thus losing $280,000 a week in passenger revenues. To build up its fleet, the company was trying to borrow Lockheed Constellations from Australia's Quantas Empire Airways, was reportedly talking about buying new piston-powered Constellations direct from Lockheed...