Word: comets
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Then came airliners and bombers. A Vickers Viscount liner swooped over the field with three of its four turboprop engines feathered, and did a climbing turn. A Canberra jet bomber whirled in acrobatics as if it were a carnival stunt plane. A Comet jet liner lumbered down the runway, then jumped steeply into the air, pushed by rocket boosters...
When Eastern Air Lines' Captain Eddie Rickenbacker offered to pay $100 million for 35 Comet jet transports (TIME, Sept. 8), it seemed to be a golden opportunity for the British to grab a big chunk of the U.S. commercial plane market. But last week it looked as if the British had muffed...
First Offer. U.S. airline bosses were not long in getting the word of the Comet's fine performance. Recently, T.W.A.'s President Ralph Damon dropped in for a look at a De Havilland plant, and later went for a ride in the Comet; so did Pan American's President Juan Trippe. Then came Eastern Air Lines' economy-minded President Eddie Rickenbacker ("I count the pennies-then I count the mills"). Last week, after a 90-minute flight in a Comet, Rickenbacker became the first to announce that he was ready to place an order. Eastern, said...
...commercial jet supremacy. This week, at the annual Farnborough show, they will fly the world's first turboprop transports,† Bristol's 104-passenger Britannia, Vickers' 40-to-53-passenger Viscount. These turboprops are designed for nonstop runs too long (e.g., the North Atlantic) for the Comet to fly, or too sparsely traveled (e.g., to Sweden) to justify Comets...
...Comet I is De Havilland's current model; the Comet II, due for delivery late in 1953, will have a range of 2,000 miles, (v. the present 1,750) and a speed of better than 500 m.p.h.; the Comet III's chief gain will be in capacity (60 to 75 passengers v. the present...