Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World

by Sam Howe Verhovek

The captivating story of the titans, engineers, and pilots who raced to design a safe and lucrative passenger jet.

In Jet Age , journalist Sam Howe Verhovek explores the advent of the first generation of jet airliners and the people who designed, built, and flew them. The path to jet travel was triumphal and amazingly rapid-less than fifty years after the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, Great Britain led the world with the first commercial jet plane service. Yet the pioneering British Comet was cursed with a tragic, mysterious flaw, and an upstart Seattle company put a new competitor in the the Boeing 707 Jet Stratoliner. Jet Age vividly recreates the race between two nations, two global airlines, and two rival teams of brilliant engineers for bragging rights to the first jet service across the Atlantic Ocean in 1958.
At the center of this story are great minds and courageous souls, including Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, who spearheaded the development of the Comet, even as two of his sons lost their lives flying earlier models of his aircraft; Sir Arnold Hall, the brilliant British aerodynamicist tasked with uncovering the Comet's fatal flaw; Bill Allen, Boeing's deceptively mild-mannered president; and Alvin "Tex" Johnston, Boeing's swashbuckling but supremely skilled test pilot. The extraordinary airplanes themselves emerge as characters in the drama. As the Comet and the Boeing 707 go head-to-head, flying twice as fast and high as the propeller planes that preceded them, the book captures the electrifying spirit of an the Jet Age.
In the spirit of Stephen Ambrose's Nothing Like It in the World , Verhovek's Jet Age offers a gorgeous rendering of an exciting age and fascinating technology that permanently changed our conception of distance and time, of a triumph of engineering and design, and of a company that took a huge gamble and won.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Aviation, Business, Technology, Science

248 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2010

Reviews

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, if a bit unfocused and repetitive. Would have benefited from better editing, but worth reading even if solely for the bit about how tax policy led to the development of the first Boeing jet passenger plane.

[Nick Black]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001...

[Pete · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jet Age: The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World (2010) by Sam Howe Verhovek tells the tale of the birth of mass civilian aviation.

The book details the story of The Comet and of the Boeing 707 that truly ushered in the jet age. There is much on the personalities involved including Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, the chairman of Boeing Bill Allen, Tex Johnston the test pilot and Jean Trippe, the head of Pan Am.

The story of how the Comet failed is interesting, it was not the ‘square windows’ story that is often told. It shows that people including myself don’t think of these things but depressurization events have occured in other planes that haven’t caused the fuselage to fall to pieces the way the Comet did.

Howe Verhovek manages to tell the story well, there are loads of interesting details such as how Jean Trippe saw making air travel cheaper and for the masses as key, how weird tax rules made the development of the 707 more attractive for Boeing and much more.

Jet Age is well worth a read for anyone interested in the history of technology.

[Collin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book for a plane (where I read it), but frustratingly thin. A lot of fascinating tidbits that I would’ve liked to see explored further. The author could have spent more pages exploring Bill Allen’s leadership of Boeing, or Tex Johnston’s wild life. Still, a worthwhile look at how Boeing came to dominate the early civilian jet age, with welcome attention to the advantages the Pacific Northwest provided to the company over its mostly Southern California-based (American) competitors. Reading about the dynamism and pride of Boeing’s prime makes the current, decrepit state of the company even more depressing.

[Johnny Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This really well written history of the jet starts with the history of flight and branches out. Telling the tales of Pan-Am, BOAC, Boeing, Douglas, & the De Havilland Comet, there is a bit of breadth to the story telling. There is an obvious tilt towards Boeing and the Comet, one assumes because Boeing still exists for records and interviews, and the Comet be disastrous is also very well documented. The concluding chapters started to become a bit redundant running out the same facts that were tasty morsels in the beginning but had become stale by the end.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light on technical detail, long on wonder and well-selected anecdote (including details about the first flight attendants.) This is the perfect little read for flight somewhere. While fun to imagine a world where the elegant Comet had won the titular race, the book soft-sells a little bit the fact that Boeing produced the far better, even if more workman-like, design, even accounting for the metallurgy of pressurized cabins the English plane tragically ended up pioneering.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although there was a lot of interesting information in this book, the lack of flow in the storytelling made this a more difficult read than it needed to be.

[Allen Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good overview of evolution of jet powered transportation without getting too deep or technical. Alot of good anecdotes that keep it interesting.

[Karmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful overview of the race to the jet age. I only wish it had been longer.

[Timothy Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, but a little short.

[Joe White · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's format appeared to be a compilation of shorter stories. It resulted in numerous repeats of snippets of story texts that he considered critical or important to flesh out the story. It left me thinking I had fallen asleep and was back at a previous point, and after four or more repetitions of some detail I was losing interest in the main story line.

Another issue I had with the text was the presentation method of the Comet investigation. The books opens with the Comet story which was very interesting, and proceeds in a sequential fashion to the point of the beginning of the investigation of the air disaster, but does not present the methods or conclusions of the crash vulnerability. Then the author began trying to weave separate, disparate story lines into the text, in order to present other facets of competition during the early jetliner.

I think his weaving attempt was not as smooth as it could have been. He found it necessary to revert back to the beginning of aviation several times in order to tell personal histories of individuals who had influence on the direct story line of the main competitors for building jet transport. It was in that constant relapse into the personal histories that the redundancies appeared, almost in every retold story.

In the end, the final cause of the airframe failure of the Comet, almost slid by as a very dim highlight mentioned in a very low tone. It appeared that the square window frames alluded to in the opening segment, were a major contribution to fatigue failure and loss of pressurization. But no pronouncement that this was the definitive problem, and exactly what redesign was required was ever put forth.

Overall the book was well researched and presented some interesting facts. I think it could have been presented in a more direct linear storyline with more impact. I don't think that the author is inclined toward engineering or mechanics in his daily life. The story included numerous quotes from people that were passengers or observers, and were timely to an event, but had no decisive relevance to the outcome of an investigation and no influence on any modification needed for improvement. The presentation was more akin to a presentation of Hollywood gossip than to engineering meetings and cost/budget/time estimates for changing manufacturing processes. Of course too much dry engineering detail curtails the reading base exponentially.

[Jim B · Rating 3 out of 5]

About a month ago I was in Seattle and had finished the book I had brought with me. Searching the shelves at the Barnes & Noble at Pacific Place I spied this book, which is subtitled "The Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World." Being in the land of Boeing, it seems like a good choice. I will admit sheepishly that the review snippets also were attractive. The Wall Street Journal mention the book features "big money, war, sex, and power." Wowie, sex in a plane book? The New York Times says "Jet Age is a page-turning detective story." Cool.

So, does the book live up to this billing? Of course not. Well, unless you think sex is about how flight attendants were conceived and implemented. (Get your mind out of the gutter, I don't mean conceived in that sense...) And in my opinion, this isn't much of a detective story. What the book is however; is a really great, though at times simple, telling of how jet airliners "shrunk the world" and changed all of our lives forever. I wished for more detail about the men and the planes, and the inner-workings of Boeing and DeHavilland, but upon reading that the author was a journalist it is clear that he intended this book as an extended newspaper piece. Cover the basics, include some socio-economic thoughts, maybe a tad bit of personal observation, and not get too in-depth. Please don't get me wrong, it is a good book and a fun, quick read, but after recently reading Empire of the Clouds I was hoping for a little bit more than the book delivered. Also, as a Canadian I was disappointed that the Avro Canada Jetliner was relegated to little more then a paragraph. I have to admit I'm not sure you can tell the story of the rise of jet airliners without a more detailed account of Avro Canada's project, but maybe that is just national pride talking.

All in all it was a fun starting point on the subject and the perfect choice for a flight back to Akron on "a big ol' jet airliner." It also is interesting to think...and as noted by the author...that without the events told in this story, there is no way I'd be involved in a bicoastal relationship in 2012. Thanks Boeing and DeHavilland (and Avro Canada)!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program.

Flying on a jet isn't something anyone thinks much about, but in the not-so-distant past, the airlines weren't even sure that jets were something that passengers would want or need. The evolution of air travel has seemed so natural, it never even occurred to me that there would even be a question as to whether or not to build commercial jets. It's amazing how much things have changed in such a short time.

Jet Age is the history of the birth of high-speed air travel. Before jet airlines, it took much longer to get where you were going, there were more stops... and oh yeah, it was riskier! The de Havilland Comet and the Boeing 707 changed all of that. Well, at least the death part--the Comet was a design that was ahead of its time, but it had a fatal flaw that led to several accidents.

Learning about the engineering of jet planes was cool, but what was most fascinating to hear about was the people who ushered in the jet age--de Havilland owner and aircraft enthusiast Geoffrey de Havilland (who stuck with planes after losing two sons in plane accidents in de Havilland planes); Bill Allen, Boeing lawyer-turned president; and high-flying loose cannon "Tex" Johnson, test pilot extraordinaire (inspiration for the character Major T. J. "King" Kong in Dr. Strangelove.

This is a short history that pretty much ensures that you'll never take a quick trip by commercial jet for granted again.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

I filled out an online form and suggested that my local library acquire this book, and they did - oh well, not every suggestion is a good one.

When I read the acknowledgements (at the end) I understood that this fellow, interested in Boeing, did a lot of research and then turned this research into a book. I expected a level of detail about the decision making behind the building of the 707 that is completely absent, as well as the context for those decisions. Nope, not much of that.

In 270+ pages, he manages to convey amazingly little information. The introduction of the 707 was a milestone in commercial aviation, but there is no description of where things were before its introduction. How many passengers rode in a typical DC-7, the state of the art prior to its introduction? Not here. Instead, a lengthy (pointless) discussion of stewardesses. And a brief (and also pointless) history of aviation.

The famous barrel roll (actually done twice) done by the test pilot, Tex Johnston, over Lake Washington is described about twenty times. What a barrel roll is is not described properly even once - particularly that the prototype would have been completely upside down (albeit briefly), not something one expects to see from the largest (then) commercial airliner in the world.

Really, what a waste this book is. The author simply has no idea what level of information would be of interest for the target audience. Phooey.

[Trav · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy to read, and interesting, examination of the development of transatlantic jetliners in the late 1950s.

Verhovek focuses on the race to develop the first transatlantic jet airliner. Although he devotes a chapter each in the beginning to the Comet and the 707, the majority of the book is the back story to these aircraft. He examines the development of the aviation industry from the Wright brother through to the end of the World War II, looking at the individuals behind the companies that shaped the race across the Atlantic.

Although the book's jacket advertises it as a the story of the "titans, engineers, and pilots", the underlying theme of the book was the nationalistic aspects of the jetliner development during this period. Verhovek emphasizes throughout the different approaches taken by the British and American government's in developing jet travel. Whereas the US aviation industry had to rely solely on the ability to convince airline executives to finance the development of passenger jets, the British were able to use state-backed industries to produce a jet that would be bought by the state-backed airline. This gave the British a leg-up in the race across the Atlantic.

The nationalistic dimensions of the post-War aviation industry are brought out by Verhovek in other areas as well. Particularly interesting was the US government's threat to withdraw SAS's US landing rights over their decision to serve sandwiches free in economy class. (p.100)

[Persephone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given that my first airplane trip was when I was around four and any amazement that I felt during that first jet plane experience has long since worn off (if not vanished altogether), Verhovek has achieved something wonderful. After reading Jet Age, I have officially regained my fascination with air travel. Its vignettes describing how some of the key individuals responsible for bringing jet travel into the commercial sphere first had their interests captivated by flight have reignited my own; these include airplane designer Geoffrey de Havilland's fascination with the chance upward drifting of a toy parachute as a child and Boeing's former chief flight test pilot Alvin "Tex" Johnston's colorful remembrances of his first time ever flying in a propeller plane, which incidentally became the start of his career of selling air travel to the masses.

Part window into some of the history of airplane engine innovation and record-breaking & sometimes bizarre inaugural first flights, part tale of business leaders' gamble to invest large amounts of time and money in game-changing technological advancements to catapult their struggling businesses to success, and part glimpse into how different a plane ride was for the very first members of the jet age, Sam Howe Verhovek succeeds in creating a fascinating read.

[Tom Landry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book very interesting. I grew up riding on the airlines regularly in the 70s and 80s and then became an airline pilot in the 90s. The Preface really took me back to what it used to be like flying compared to how it is today. It hit on how flying as a passenger has changed over the years.

The book detailed the history of the airline industry dating back to the air mail days which is an interesting evolution. The development of the jet engine was also covered. The author examined them men behind the companies that brought the Comet and 707 to life. It even got in to how Stewardesses/Flight Attendants came to be on passenger flights.

Of course the first jet airliners were a major part of the book with focus on the Comet and the 707 as the title would suggest. It was interesting to see how the airlines responded to the development of jet airliners and the differences between the British and American philosophies about the jets.

The only thing I noticed that bothered me is that there were times the story seemed to jump around in history but that was a very minor issue. In the end there was a lot of information about the history of Jet airliners, the men who developed them, the airline industry and the development jet engine. More than I expected. This was an informative and enjoyable read.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. I've always been a fan of planes, though not necessarily of flying. I suppose its in the blood, with my family having ties to aviation through none other than Howard Hughes and the Spruce Goose. This book presents the dawn of the jet age and the characters who brought us these amazing machines in such a compelling manner that I really hate to put the book down. Covering the birth of the first jets, and going back a little further to touch upon their predecessors, the prop passenger planes and the start of commercial airlines, this book covers all the glamor and the tragedy.

The history of some of the most beautiful planes ever conceived, aviation legends, like Boeing's Stratoliner, Stratocruiser, 707 and 747 are presented with page turning interest. The space-age De Havilland Comet, a plane with a fatal flaw, its story presented to the reader almost like a murder mystery. The Lockheed Constellation, an elegant triple-tailed homage to luxury.

If you have even a modest interest in planes or flight, I highly encourage you to pick this book up. Being in the Northwest we are lucky to have two premier air museums only hours away. The Boeing Air Museum in Seattle and the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinville. I'll be returning for visits to both with a brand new appreciation for the incredible history behind these machines.

[Raj Agrawal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable book about the beginning of flight. Tells the story of some of the key heroes of early "airpower", from Boeing and Tex Johnston, to Earhart and Lindberg, and even capitalism as a mechanism for maximizing the utility and innovation of flight. Verhovek portrays flight as changing the dynamics of space and time in a way that no other innovation had done before.

From a strategic perspective, this book provides a look into organizational and cultural change, how to manage a new capability and domain (e.g. cyberspace), and how both domestic and international dynamics can have a significant impact on innovation.

The author also devotes a good portion of his book to the failure of the British Comet. Here, cognitive dissonance, culture, and prestige seemed to compel the British to consistently look past the possibility of design flaws, despite numerous fatal accidents. Finally, the number of crashes led to a crisis point (see Kuhn, Jervis, Kahneman, Gilpin, and Shein) where "metal fatigue" was finally identified as the cause: "'It is metallurgy, not aeronautics, that is in the dock,' Lord Brabazon insisted" (175). While the Comet did bounce back temporarily, Boeing won the long game.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jet Age: the Comet, the 707, and the Race to Shrink the World is a comprehensive, yet succinct look at the progress of flight in the 20th Century. Even non-aviation enthusiasts will delight in this fascinating description of the mover and shakers, evolution of airplanes, and somewhat good-natured global competition to move with gusto into this new method of transportation.

Living in the 21st Century, we tend to forget where we came from and how bold and fearless these early pilots and engineers were. They had a dream...a dream to fly and it was realized in a relatively short period of time. The world has indeed shrunk and we owe a debt of gratitude to these forward-thinking individuals who have made global traveling commonplace.

A true delight in non-fiction reading. Oh, and by-the-way, I loved the reference to the Twilight Zone episode when a jet travels through the clouds back into prehistoric times. Brings me back to the days when television was great!

Thank you to Goodreads, Sam Howe Verhovek, Avery Marketing, and the Penguin Group for this ARC copy.

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

My freshman year of college, I took a class called "Engineering Failures, The Dark Side of Technology" and one of the things we covered in the class was the DeHavilland Comet. I've been fascinated by the Comet ever since. I have read up on the technical reasons for the Comet's failure, but somehow I had missed the rivalry between DeHavilland and Boeing, and the beginning of the jet age.

This book is fascinating. It's not just the history of the planes themselves, but the history of jet air travel in general. I was really surprised that the airlines still ran a handful of male-passenger-only flights into the early 70's. So much has changed in the world of air travel.

The book itself is a quick read, and the author tells a good story. It really is the best kind of "I didn't know that!" non-fiction.

[L · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book manages to be repetitive without really saying anything. There are a few interesting anecdotes, but for the most part the author seems to have cribbed from other books without really adding anything of his own. The (rare) descriptions of anything scientific or technical are oversimplified to the point of becoming meaningless. (The one that stood out most to me was the idea that all of flight can be explained by Newton's third law, with no mention of petty things like lift or a guy named Bernoulli.) It's not clear whether the author was trying to make things more accessible to a non-technical audience or if he just had a poor understanding of the material. This might be a good book for someone with no background in the history or science of flight, but it just didn't work for me.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway. Jet Age is a brief but interesting short history of the race to the Jet Age. I enjoyed learning about the different personalities associated with this story. Some were eccentric, some were very private some were new to aviation, some were old hands. All were dedicated to the goal of making their nation or company the first to usher in the Jet
Age and especially the non-stop commercial jet flight across the Atlantic. It was very enjoyable reading about the reaction of people to their first exposure to a jet aircraft. It was also eye opening to really discover how dangerous early commercial aviation really was, even into the Jet Age.

[Velimir Randic · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good summary of the battle to produce and sell the world's first successful jetliner. The book does not go into much detail of each individual aspect of the design behind the two main competitors, the deHavilland Comet and Boeing 707. The most glaring oversight is using an entire chapter to cover the accident investigation of the Comet crashes with only breifly covering the topic of metal fatigue, not mentioning the fatigue originated from the square corners of the navigator's observation window. There are certainly more thorough design histories of the individual aircraft and biographies of the principals involved, but it is a good introduction to the topic and era.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just an awesome read. This book tells the true story of the battle to bring jets to the airline industry. It's quite a battle, with the US and England battling for glory after World War II. Great stories of the people, plans and risks involved, while also showing how dramatically the airline industry has changed in the relatively short time it's been around. Highly recommended!

I won this book through the Goodreads First Reads program and my review is based on an advance uncorrected proof.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Today's view of flying on jets is one of crowds, TSA, delays, etc. In the 50s flying on jets was romantic, fascinating and a bit risky. Verhovek describes the birth of the commercial jet age recounting the misadventures of the de Haviland Comet and the eventual success of the Boeing Dash 80. If the creators of the jet age that their daring inventions would become airborne bus routes, maybe they would have closed up shop and invented something else.

[Paul Duggan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like an overly long magazine article, the book focuses more on the airline industry during this era than on the engineering and development of the De Havilland Comet and Boeing 707.

Gathered from secondary sources, it was a good overview but many details of the two aircraft were lacking. For example, the cracks at the corners of the Comet's square windows, the cause of the three disasters, were mentioned only as an afterthought.

[Steeljaw Scribe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and cautionary story of the competition between the UK (de Havilland's Comet) and the US (Boeing 707) at the dawn of the jet transport age. Could serve as a modern day allegory for the US' current technological prowess. Narrative a bit out of synch as it tends to jump around chronologically, but otherwise a quick read.

[Nick Kugel · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one review on the book says "anyone that has been on a plane can relate to and enjoy this book." I somewhat agree with this, however, I didn't really like the way the book was laid out. The story gets side track by a couple of chapters that had nothing to do with the race. I would recommend this to anyone who saw this book and though it could be interesting.

[Tyler Lees · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the premise of this book more than its execution. Supposedly the story of how the jet airliner came into being, the book loses focus about halfway through, and rushes into its conclusion.

The author does a good job of explaining technical aspects simply and easily. It's not a bad read - just a poorly structured one.