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An exploritory question about the D.H. Comet


Scott Hemsley

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Having seen the announcement from Mach 2 of a "Comet 4"* (an obvious follow-on to their Britannia), and given my dad's connection to the RCAF Comet's … I have to ask... could a Comet Mk.1 be easily (relatively speaking) converted from a "Comet 4"?  Apart from the fuselage stretch and the protrusions on the leading edge of the wings, what other changes need to be done? 

 

https://www.72news.eu/2018/11/mach2-de-havilland-dh106-comet-4c.html

 

Scott

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Engine intakes are quite different and I would suspect differences in the fairings over the engines and jetpipes. Comet Is had dehavilland Ghost engines versus RR Avons on the later versions.

 

Comet Is also had the square windows.

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With regard to the windows (square vs rounded) … yes and no.  When the RCAF accepted the two Comet 1's*, they initially did have the square windows, but that changed when D.H. looked into several incidents of structural failures in the cabin - which proved after some investigation, to be centred around the design of the square windows with a pressurized cabin.  They found rounded windows solved the problem and the modification was made fleet-wide to all Comet 1 airframes.  As a result, both of the RCAF's Comet's were grounded while the re-fit  was done.

 

Assuming  I take on the conversion in the first place,  the question  I would face would be …  'do I wish to model the Comet as accepted into RCAF service with the original square windows or as they appeared with 412 Squadron (post-window modification)?   Anyway, thanks for the heads-up about the engine fairings.  I'll have to look into how much of an external  change that would be.

 

* The Royal Canadian Air Force was the first military service anywhere, to operate jet transport.

 

Scott

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No is the quick answer .. Not that much  except you can shorten the Fuse.  Isn't there a Comet 1 kit out there ? Wings aren't the same the 4 , has 100 Sq Ft more wing area, Engine cowlings  shape , diameter of the engines is different  , Wing trailing edge  and T/E wing root fillet and Dihedral is different, ditto  Tailplane, 4's  bigger . Rudder and Fin ? Fin Height is 1 foot taller on the 4 ,might be down to Undercarriage length and Tyre size .  Not 100 % sure .

Edited by bzn20
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The short answer, bzn20, 'yes there is' - listed on the Welsh Models site, as kit no. CL72-2 (Classic Airliner Series, 1/72 scale) and described as a multi-media kit with a vac fuselage and resin wings, etc.  They actually offer 2 Comet 1's (both with the original square windows) with kit Cl72-2 being the RCAF version.  It's also listed at 67.60p (GBP).  That's about $112 and change CAD.  After all you pointed out, that's back on my 'wish list', even with that hit to the wallet.    Even though I'm fairly comfortable working with vac kits, a Comet would be the largest I would've tried and like many here, if I had a choice between working with vac-forms vs injection (even an injection conversion) …

 

 Oh, well … Welsh it is! Thanks, gentlemen.   🙂

 

Scott

 

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On 11/11/2018 at 00:52, Scott Hemsley said:

The short answer, bzn20, 'yes there is' - listed on the Welsh Models site, as kit no. CL72-2 (Classic Airliner Series, 1/72 scale) and described as a multi-media kit with a vac fuselage and resin wings, etc.  They actually offer 2 Comet 1's (both with the original square windows) with kit Cl72-2 being the RCAF version.  It's also listed at 67.60p (GBP).  That's about $112 and change CAD.  After all you pointed out, that's back on my 'wish list', even with that hit to the wallet.    Even though I'm fairly comfortable working with vac kits, a Comet would be the largest I would've tried and like many here, if I had a choice between working with vac-forms vs injection (even an injection conversion) …

 

 Oh, well … Welsh it is! Thanks, gentlemen.   🙂

 

Scott

 

 

You beat me to it, the best way to go for a Comet 1 and 1A would be the Welsh 1/72 kit. Would the modest amount of vacform in the Welsh kit (given the repution that Welsh have for producing high quality engineered kits) be any harder than tackling a Mach2 kit?

 

My suggestion would be to wait until there are some build reviews of the Mach 2 kit posted, then make your decision. From the little I have seen re the mach 2 kit, I would be very heavily leaning towards the Welsh kit, but who knows?

 

Tommo.

Edited by The Tomohawk Kid
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