Young and his wife, Margaret, on their wedding day in 1953, six years after he joined BOACThe airline captain Archie Young had developed a sixth sense for danger during his wartime years flying Stirling and Wellington bombers. When the early flights of Britain’s new Comet 1, the world’s first jet passenger airliner, left him fearing the worst, he had a personal stake in the matter: his fiancée was a stewardess on the new aircraft. The Comet 1 had been launched to the acclaim of cheering crowds at London Airport in May 1952, hailed as the future of aviation with its cruising speed of 460mph, its de Havilland Ghost engines concealed in the wings and its large square picture windows for optimum viewing. Yet Young, who flew with the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), knew that some of the Comet’s pilots, including…

Source: The Times October 26, 2017 23:02 UTC