June 2 may be synonymous with the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II but it is not the only 70th anniversary we celebrate.

Hilary and Tenzing conquered Everest the day before, and the De Haviland Comet had operated the world’s first commercial jet airliner service. Just one month earlier, 2 May a BOAC Comet 1 departed from London Airport, as it was then called, bound for Johannesburg (South Africa).

The 36-seat jetliner took almost 24 hours to make the journey, stopping five times for refuelling en-route, at Rome, Beirut, Khartoum, Entebbe and Livingstone and changing crew at both Beirut and Khartoum. The first return airfares were £350.

Prince Philip, a proper aviation man and as inquisitive as ever, made his first Comet trip in August 1952, and just after the Coronation, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret were guests on a special flight of the Comet on 30 June 1953 hosted by Sir Geoffrey and Lady de Havilland.

Within a year of entering airline service, problems started to emerge, three Comets being lost within 12 months in highly publicised accidents, after suffering catastrophic in-flight break-ups.  

Whilst the design problems were resolved the Comet was not a real success only 119 being built.  

Learning lessons from the de Havilland tragedy, Boeing flew the 707 in 1954 with Pan Am introducing the aircraft 28 October 1958.  Remarkably the overall cross section was retained for future Seattle single aisle types including the latest MAX.  Airbus made their competing A20 just that little bit wider.  The last Comet derivative, the RAF Nimrod flew its final operational sortie 28 June 2011.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Comet