This photograph of Comet 1 production at Hatfield was taken five months before the maiden flight of the prototype. The 31 min first flight took place on July 27, 1949 in private and without the press in attendance.

Самолёты на фотографии: Aircrafts on the photo: De Havilland Comet / D.H.106 - ВеликобританияUnited Kingdom - 1949

The shape of things to come. The third prototype D.H.108 Swallow, in which John Derry was to exceed Mach 1 on September 9, 1948. Note the lines of pressure-plotting points under the wings, which were connected to recording instruments within the fuselage.
DE HAVILLAND DH.108 SWALLOW. The DH.108 was a swept-wing tailless machine designed for research. Three aircraft were built, and they provided much useful data for the Comet design . The first machine, TG283, was intended to determine the low-speed characteristics of the swept-wing, and had fixed open-wing slots. It flew for the first time on 15th May 1946, piloted by Geoffrey de Havilland, but crashed on 1st May 1950. Maiden flight of the second aircraft, TG306. was on 25th September 1946 (also piloted by Geoffrey de Havilland). It was built for high speeds and the wing slots were retractable. It crashed only two days later (27th September 1946). The third prototype, VW 120, was another high-speed machine, which first flew on 24th July 1947 in the hands of Group Capt. John Cunningham. It was in this aircraft that John Derry established a new 100-km. closed-circuit record of 605.23 m.p.h. on 12th April 1948, and on 6th September 1948 officially exceeded the speed of sound for the first time in this country. This aircraft was in fact the first aircraft in the world to fly supersonically with a conventional aircraft engine, i.e. an aspirated engine as opposed to a rocket. It crashed on 15th February 1950.

Самолёты на фотографии: Aircrafts on the photo: De Havilland Swallow / D.H.108 - ВеликобританияUnited Kingdom - 1946