Mondo Knows Facts

The de Havilland Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner

Entering service in 1952, the British Comet introduced jet-powered commercial passenger travel

The de Havilland Comet made its maiden commercial flight with British Overseas Airways Corporation between London and Johannesburg in May 1952. Powered by four embedded jet engines, it halved previous piston-engine travel times. Early pressurisation fatigue issues led to structural redesigns that benefited all subsequent jet aircraft design.

De Havilland Comet 1 silhouette
US Air Force ยท Public domain ยท source

Where this comes from

Science Museum Group

Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.

Go further

More facts like this

Tags: aviation, airliner, jet-engine

The de Havilland Comet was the world's first commercial jet airliner: the short answers

Where does this come from, and can I check it?
Entering service in 1952, the British Comet introduced jet-powered commercial passenger travel. The figure is taken from Science Museum Group, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
Is this really a technology fact?
Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
What else can I read about it?
The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.