Birthday/ Greeting Card featuring a BOAC De Havilland Comet airliner from an Aviation Art Painting by Artist Malcolm Root

The world’s first jet airliner, the Comet caused huge interest when it entered passenger service in 1952. The British Overseas Air Corporation (BOAC) suddenly had an aircraft that could fly higher, faster and more reliably than any other airliner in service. Unfortunately pioneers in all field suffer early problems but the Comet’s faults resulted in several accidents that greatly affected its reputation for the rest of its career. The problem was traced back to compressibility at the edges of the square windows of early marks, such as the Comet I seen here, resulting in airframe failures and crashes with large loss of life. The later Comet 4 rectified these faults but the introduction of newer aircraft, such as the Boeing 707, and its previous problems led to disappointing sales.

In this airliner birthday card by Malcolm Root, the graceful lines of the early Comet are shown off the good effect, flying over the Pyramids, some time in the early 1950s