Whoosh!

At 3:12 London time one misty afternoon last week, exactly on schedule, the commercial jet air age began. The dolphin-bodied de Havilland jet liner Comet got the take-off signal, swept down the runway at London Airport, its four turbines whistling a high pitch, and climbed seven miles into the air carrying a full load of 36 passengers, six crewmen and 30 bags of mail. The next day, as thousands watched at Johannesburg's Palmietfontein Airport, the silver and blue BOAC jet streaked down, ending its 6,724-mile trip. Total elapsed time: 23 hours, 38 minutes. This was 8 3/4 hours faster than BOAC's usual nights take. Yet by refueling at friendly Beirut instead of at anti-British Cairo, the Comet had flown a route 684 miles longer.

The jet liner, which gobbles its fuel many times faster than a propeller plane, made five stops: Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone. Actually, as BOAC officials proudly pointed out, they were not trying to set speed records, just trying to fly a schedule they will meet thrice weekly, beginning next month. The Comet hit a top average speed of 525 m.p.h. on the Rome-Beirut leg, dawdled 46 minutes overtime at Khartoum's airport, wasted another half-hour at Livingstone, then regained so quickly that on the last leg Pilot R. C. Alabaster said: "We made wide sweeps to kill time so as not to arrive ahead of schedule." Even so, the Comet was two minutes early into Johannesburg.

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