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A new limited edition print by Patricia Forrest GAvA depicting BOAC; Comet 4 G-APDC over New York near to Idlewild (later called John F Kennedy) Airport, having made the first ever Jet service flight across the Atlantic on the 4th October 1958. Captained by Roy Millichap DFC.
On October 4, 1958, BOAC beat its Pan American rival to jet services by just three weeks in a bold and unexpected simultaneous operation of east and westbound Comet 4 services between London and New York. Capt Tom Stoney flew G-APDB non-stop from New York in a. record time of 6 hours 12 mins while Capt Roy Millichap commanded G-APDC westbound via Gander in an overall time of 10 hours 20 mins.
It was effectively the start of the modern jet age as we know it today. Although the earlier Comet 1 had pioneered jet passenger services with such promise in 1952, it was a false dawn as the aircraft's grounding two years later suddenly thrust commercial aviation back into the all-propeller age once again.
Originally, BOAC had intended to introduce the Comet 4 on multi-sector operations to Australia in February 1959. However, when it appeared that Pan Am would introduce Boeing 707s on transatlantic routes before the end of 1958, the need to be able to mount a competitive jet response became paramount.
An unofficial game of bluff and counter-bluff then ensued as each side went through a succession of plans for launching operations. BOAC eventually publicly went firm on a December 1958 start date while Pan Am planned to launch in November. Behind the scenes, though, every effort was made to better that commitment and with DH providing two aircraft on the contracted first delivery date, BOAC was suddenly able to advance its plans by two months.
A pre-inaugural proving flight took off for New York on October 2 to obtain the vital permit to fly from the New York authorities and fewer than 12 hours after this was achieved, the two east and westbound Comet 4s carried fare-paying passengers for the first time. The second and now 50-year long era of jet airliner operations had begun.
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