Introduction to the Trident

THE impending maiden flight of the de Havilland DH.12I Trident at Hatfield heralds the arrival of the second generation of turbojet‐powered airliners and the Company which designed and built the world's first jet airliner—the Comet 1— s now first in the field with a 600 m.p.h. short‐to‐medium‐range civil transport of sophisticated design. With its rear‐fuselage‐mounted engines, the Trident disposes a configuration which was adopted and proved operationally by Sud Aviation in the Caravelle airliner, and which has been a design feature of the last eight British jet transport projects. However, lest it be thought that such a configuration was the exclusive brainchild of the French company, it is relevant to recall that as long ago as 1943, de Havilland project engineers were proposing the use of rear‐mounted jet engines. In that detailed and profoundly interesting book by Mr C. Martin Sharp, somewhat modestly entitled DH—An Outline ofde Havilland History, there is a brief mention, with three‐view drawings, of an early design study for the Comet airliner. This was a short‐range aircraft of canard configuration with three Ghost engines buried in the rear fuselage.