History of aviation – October 25, 1949. On this Tuesday, October 25, 1949, pilot John Cunningham will take command of the DH Comet, a long-haul aircraft, developed by the British aircraft manufacturer de Havilland since 1946 and which should ensure transport missions of passengers. The aviator being in charge of testing the plane.
The latter, which has the particularity of being a jet aircraft, in fact two 2,030 kgp Ghost turbojets, taking place in its wings, ensuring its motorization, will be the very first of this type with a commercial vocation, a career that it will not begin until January 1952 after having undergone a battery of tests.
If this de Havilland Comet made its very first flight on July 27, 1949, at the end of October 1949, its tests are still in progress and the round trip flight on October 25, 1949 will take it to Libya from Grande -Brittany. An air raid, between London and Tripoli, which will require six hours and thirty-six minutes, the aircraft being capable of flying at 720 kilometers per hour.
