Anyone who's done an engineering course will have heard about the metal fatigue in the Comet's overhead windows. What I didn't know was the comet originally wa

Anyone who's done an engineering course will have heard about the metal fatigue in the Comet's overhead windows. What I didn't know was the comet originally was supposed to be equipped with rockets for take-off on short runways, and at high altitude. From Wikipedia: "The Comet was originally intended to have two hydrogen peroxide powered de Havilland Sprite booster rockets for takeoff under hot and high conditions from airports such as Khartoum and Nairobi. These were tested on 30 flights, but the Ghosts were apparently powerful enough without them. The later Comet 4 was highly rated for its takeoff performance from high altitude locations such as Mexico City" Cool!