Topic summary
Jetliner
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Jet airliner.
1950s
The first purpose-built jet airliner was the British de Havilland Comet which first flew in 1949 and entered service in 1952 with BOAC. It carried 36 passengers up to 2500 miles (4000 km) at a speed of 450mph (725 km/h). Serious structural problems arose not even two years after entering service and prompted several changes in design. The last original Comet was retrofitted in 1958. Also developed in 1949 was the Avro Canada C102 Jetliner, which never reached production; however, the term jetliner came into use as a generic term for passenger jet aircraft.