Jet age

=Aviation history=

The de Havilland Comet was the first jet airliner to fly, the first in service in 1952 and the first to offer a transatlantic jet service. One hundred and fourteen were built but the Comet 1 had serious design problems leading to two total loss crashes, which grounded the entire fleet. The Comet 4 solved these problems but the program was overtaken by the Boeing 707. The Comet 4 was developed into the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod still flying

The first five jet airliners to fly where:

1. The de Havilland Comet, 1949

2. The Canadian Avro Jetliner, later in 1949

3. The French Sud Caravelle, 1955

4. The Soviet Russian Tupolev Tu-104, 1955

5. The Boeing 707, 1957

The first in service were:

1. The de Havilland Comet, 1952

2. The Soviet Russian Tupolev Tu-104, 1956

3. The Boeing 707, 1958

4. The French Sud Caravelle

(The Canadian Avro Jetliner never achieved commercial service)

The first jet airliner with significant commercial success was the Boeing 707. It began service on the New York to London route in 1958, the first year that more trans-Atlantic passengers traveled by air than by ship. The Boeing 747, the 'Jumbojet', was the first widebody aircraft, reducing the cost of flying and further accelerating the jet age.

ocial history

Large aircraft powered by turbine engines are able to fly much higher, faster, and farther than older piston-powered propliners, making transcontinental and inter-continental travel considerably faster and easier: for example, aircraft leaving North America and crossing the Atlantic Ocean (and later, the Pacific Ocean) could now fly to their destinations non-stop, making much of the world accessible within a single day's travel for the first time. Since large jetliners could also carry more passengers, airfares also declined (relative to inflation), so people from a greater range of social classes could afford to travel outside of their own countries. In many ways, these changes in mobility are similar to those brought about by railroads during the 19th century.

The introduction of the Concorde supersonic passenger airliner to regular service in 1976 was expected to bring similar social changes, but the aircraft never found commercial success, and after a crash in Paris, flights were discontinued in 2003.

ee also

*Jet set