A Sample Feature From Aviation News

Supporting forces

Trooping Comets

A NEW long-range aircraft to replace the Handley Page Hastings in RAF Transport Command was a subject deliberated extensively by the Air Council in the early 1950s. The call for such a type hinged on the need to move an Army division from the UK to the Far East within a four-week timescale. Operational Requirement 315 was drawn up and was aimed principally at the promising four-jet Vickers V1000 project based on the Valiant V-bomber. In 1954, the Planning Staff proposed a force of 24 V1000s and 32 Beverleys, but Government financial restraints cut these figures to 12 and 24 respectively.  However, because the Vickers transport would not be available before 1959, the Air Council recommended that the gap be filled by de Havilland Comet 2s.

By mid-1955, the Council had provisionally agreed to order six V1000s, but figures emerging from Vickers were not encouraging. They showed that the aircraft weight was increasing, but with no added power from the Conway engines the aircraft was falling behind the Operational Requirement with payload/range being seriously compromised; delivery had also slipped to 1960. Then, in November ’55 the economy axe fell and the V1000 and its civilian VC7 counterpart were cancelled. From a fall-back position, the Comet emerged as the logical compromise and while considered unsuitable for some aspects of OR315, it would give the RAF valuable experience in flying jet-powered transports.

Above and below: Super trooper Comet 2 XK669 before delivery to 216 Sqn where it was named Taurus.

Above: Refuelling ‘down the route’, XK697 became Cygnus. The others were XK670 Corvus, 671 Aquila, 695 Perseus, 696 Orion, 698 Pegasus, 699 Sagittarius, 715 Columbia, 716 Cepheus.

No 216 Sqn at RAF Lyneham became the proud operator of the Comet 2 and the first operational mission with the type took place on June 23, 1956, when a UK Government delegation was flown to Moscow for the Soviet Air Display at Vnukovo. Thus began 19 years of successful RAF Comet operations taking in the Mk 2s and the later, longer-range Mk 4s. For Operation Musketeer, the Anglo-French operation to recover the Suez Canal, the newly-acquired Comets provided VIP transport, shuttling military staff between the UK, Cyprus and Malta. Any doubts about the reliability and safety of the ten Comet 2s delivered, following the Mk 1 disasters in 1953 and 1954, were dispelled and flights to the Far East became routine from mid-1957.

In September, aircraft started a regular service to Christmas Island in connection with the Operation Grapple nuclear tests, the round trip taking 45hr flying in less than four days via Iceland, Labrador, the USA and Honolulu. In February 1958, three Comets provided support for a four-day reinforcement exercise to Libya, Operation Quickstep. Casualty evacuation flights and a lifting of the ban on Service families flying on Comets finally dispelled any concern about the type’s safety. Cruising at 480mph, the shapely 44-seaters became heavily used as they went about their business linking Britain with its overseas bases.

The Comet 2s went on to serve until withdrawn in April 1967, supplemented from January 1962 by five Comet 4Cs, also operated by 216 Sqn. With the arrival of the larger variant, able to accommodate 94 passengers, the Mk 2s were allocated the shorter routes to the Middle East while the larger 4Cs took on the Far East run.

For the rest of this article please see the January 2009 issue.