thompson and gresley coaches

[Dave S]

Worth remembering that around 1950, De-Havilland had such problems with the Comet jet which caused the UK to lose its premier place
at the time in jet passenger planes.

paul

Without meaning to go off topic, apart from the large windows wasn't that because to speed production they moved from bonding the glass & frame to the fuselage to riveting, which introduced holes which then created stress fractures?

[john coffin]

I too did not mean to go off topic, but Aluminium had only started to be used in production for large items toward the end of the
second world war, and so its strengths and weaknesses were still being investigated.

I was always taught that part of the problem with the Comet was that although the holes might well have caused the type of
stress fracture, it was also the shape which did not help. One characteristic of Aluminium is the way its surface breaks down, hence
the wide spread use of anodising in those days.

Paul

[Hatfield Shed]

At the risk of drifting still further off subject, Ron Bishop's contention was that had the Comet been constructed from the originally specified grade of aluminium the fatigue problem would not have occurred. There is a solid connection with the LNER: Gresley was well acquainted with De Havilland; and Gresley's home during most of his time with the LNER, subsequently became the secret design shop for Bishop's team developing what became the Mosquito, and is now of course the site of the Mosquito museum.

[Eightpot]

At the risk of drifting still further off subject, Ron Bishop's contention was that had the Comet been constructed from the originally specified grade of aluminium the fatigue problem would not have occurred. There is a solid connection with the LNER: Gresley was well acquainted with De Havilland; and Gresley's home during most of his time with the LNER, subsequently became the secret design shop for Bishop's team developing what became the Mosquito, and is now of course the site of the Mosquito museum.

And going even further off subject, I'm proud to say that my late Father was a member of the Mosquito design team based at Salisbury Hall at that time.

[mossie]

To go even further off line. I am a working volunteer at the Mosquito Museum, now called the de Havilland Aircraft Museum, helping to maintain and restore 3 Mosquito aircraft including the prototype W4050, all non flying.