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de Havilland DH.111 (Comet Bomber)

1948 COLD WAR X-PLANE

History

De Havilland DH. 111 was an indirect proposal to Air Ministry specification B.35/46, the same requirement that later led to the production of the classic "V-Bomber" trio of nuclear bombers for the Royal Air Force (RAF) - trio by Avro "Vulcan", Handley Page "Victor" and Vickers Valliant (detailed elsewhere on this page). De Havilland provided the Air Department with a modified, militarized version of what would become the DH.

106 "Comet", a narrow-body airliner, launched on July 27, 1949. In its civilian form, it entered service with the BOAC in May 1952, with production reaching 114 units (including the prototype project).

Under the existing framework, it is reasonable to provide the RAF with a bomb platform in the shortest possible time compared to competing designs. Both technical and design quality will be reflected in the flying DH. 106 instead of designing and building an advanced bomber form from scratch. Design work for the new aircraft was ready for formal review in May 1948, and it was officially called the "PR Comet" and informally the "Comet Bomber."

Based on the production aircraft "Comet 1", DH. The 111 was designed to retain as much of the original jet's physics as possible, including its quad-turbojet engine layout, to speed up development. The hull was redrawn with thinner lines, reducing frontal drag and reducing overall weight. The aircraft also received additional internal fuel reserves to increase the design's estimated range -- a key feature of Cold War-era bombers.

All crew quarters will be pressurized - four crew members will be used to operate the machines instead of the five required by the specification.

Wings The main wings retain their original design lines, but the parts are lifted to mid-mount positions on the sides of the fuselage (the original Comet kept its main wings low on the fuselage). These elements are used to mount pairs of turbojets at the root of the wing, two engines per wing.

The engine draws in through oval ports on the leading edge and exits through circular ports on the trailing edge. There is sway on the front edge and only a slight sway on the outside of the trailing edge. All relevant trailing edge control surfaces exist outside the engine exhaust.

The hollow nose section will house the H2S Mk. The IX series of airborne ground scanning radar systems. However, the sheer size of this unit within the range of the Comet fuselage required a redesign of the nose section to include cheek bubbles to better fit the width of the system. The cockpit is located above and behind the nose cone and features a "bubble" framed canopy designed high. The tubular fuselage then continues to the tail of the aircraft, tapering gracefully towards the tail.

The rear wing consists of a vertical fin that slopes up horizontally, and these elements are mounted on the bottom of the fin. Ground operations will use conventional (fully retractable) tricycle landing gear, using a two-wheel front strut and a single-wheel main landing gear strut. The nasal bones are hidden under the cockpit, while the main legs are placed on the outside of the wing's outermost turbojet unit. When created, the DH.

111 had a barrel length of 95 feet, a wingspan of 115 feet, and a total weight of 105,000 pounds.

Propulsion will come from 4 de Havilland "Ghost" air-breathing turbojets rated at 5,700 lbs/unit of thrust. Engineers estimate their plane will have a top speed of 518 mph, a top speed of 50,000 feet and a range of 4,280 miles.

Internally recommends that the bomber instead carry a maximum of 18 x 1,000 lb conventional drop bombs or 1 x 10,000 lb nuclear bomb. However, British authorities were concerned that the bomb bay could not fully accommodate the required nuclear payload, forcing modifications to the hull if the DH was considered.

111 Design.

In the end, Air Force officials decided not to pursue this promising but ultimately questionable entry of the de Havilland bomber - while the RAF is already waiting for the results of some other potentially and possibly more powerful bombers in the pipeline. Also The reservation of DH is briefly considered. The 111 was an "insurance policy" against these complex planes, like the short "Sperrin" was reserved (the plane is detailed elsewhere on this site), but this yielded no results.

Hence, DH. 111 went down in history when it was completed on October 22, 1948.