TEAL May Buy Comets For Tasman Service

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28543, 24 March 1958, Page 10

TEAL May Buy Comets For Tasman Service

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, March 23. The purchase of three Comet series 4C jet airliners for Tasman Empire Airways has been recommended to the governments of New Zealand and Australia by the board of directors, says the “New Zealand Herald’s” aviation correspondent. Each Comet will cost about £1 million. The first could be delivered in June, 1960. The AucklandSydney flight could be made in about 2J hours.

The Comet could also operate through AVhenuapai as it comes within'the length of the runway and the strength restrictions.

The board made its recommendation—not unanimous—at a long meeting in Sydney last week. The board first had to decide whether T.E.A.L would have a turbo-prop or a pure jet. The executive . planners had recommended a pure jet and put three types before the board—the Comet, and two American machines—the Convair 880 and the Boeing 720. The Convair—a more advanced and faster prospect than the Comet—was the machine which generally appealed the most But its untried American engines went against it. Moreover, the Convair would have been expensive. The other American jet, the Boeing, was regarded as too big for T.E.A.L. The Comet, a smaller aircraft designed to carry up to about 100 passengers in high-density seating, should give a greater frequency.

8.0.A.C. has 19 Comets on order similar to the one recommended for T.E.A.L, and British European Airways has ordered six medium to short-range types.