Canopus

De Havilland 106 Comet 4c
XS235 'Canopus'

Photo archive of what was the worlds last flying example of the world first jet airliner. I maintained her for her final years in service. The following photos were taken with permission following her decommissioning, shortly before her final retirement flight to Bruntingthorpe.

Navigation Station

Flight Engineers Panel

Flight Deck Entrance and location of Fwd Galley (never fitted)

Looking aft from missing fwd galley position. Notice no overhead storage (never fitted)

Also visible are:
Canberra WT308?
Comet 4 XV814
Chieftain ZA622
Tornado ZA326
Met Herc XV208 'Snoopy'

Looking aft from central bulkhead towards missing aft galley (never fitted). Commercial aircraft would have had electric heating under the (missing) carpet.

View off area of missing aft galley (never fitted). All that is present is one section that provides kitchen facilities. Double doors lead to wardrobe and on to rear dome freight bay.

Stbd rear toilet (Port similar)

Battery Bay

Looking Fwd

Port

Stbd

Fwd Freight Hold

Looking Fwd. Note the additional power socket. This was in addition to the standard ground power connectors to allow connection to different available ground power sets around the world.

Looking aft. Full of rotary inverters to provide power requirements of the various trials equipment on board. These made quite a noise when they were all running!
Also note the detachable wandering strip light that has been fitted in addition to the standard freight hold lighting.

Hydraulic Bay

Looking fwd from above. Visible are three of the four hydraulic system reservoirs. I painted the coloured squares on them to aid identification.

Port side viewed from below. Visible are two of the accumulators and the 'Red' system electrically driven pump.

Stbd side viewed from below. Visible are more accumulators, two isolation cocks in the foreground (green and Blue systems) and behind them the four flow sensors (one for each system).

Stbd side viewed from above giving a clear view of the four flow sensors.

Aft wall of the hyd. bay with clear view of one of the cabin pressure control valves. In normal operation the cabin is constantly fed pressurised air from the conditioning system and the two pressure control valves control how quickly the air is allowed to bleed out of the cabin.

Centre 'Split Flaps' Jack Bay

This single very large jack operated the split flaps located under the jet-pipes each side. The flaps were moved by the thick cables via pulleys and bell-cranks.
Also visible is the lower beam of the centre section rear spar and the join with the Port wing rear spar.

This area is usually filthy. I spent a couple of days cleaning it all out so that I could see what I was actually looking at during inspections.
Also visible on the aft wall are the output levers from the Aileron Servodynes that again use thick cables via pulleys and bell-cranks to move the ailerons.

Aileron Servodyne Bay

Viewed from above (cabin floor) looking fwd.
This is what those two big leavers mentioned in the previous photo are connected to.

Port side with the fourth Hydraulic Reservoir (Yellow system) in view.

Stbd side with Yellow system electrically driven hydraulic pump in view.

Looking aft. This is the second cabin pressurisation control valve.

Odd bits

Nose leg looking fwd.
The black cannisters on the upper right are full of silica crystals and are plumbed into the flightdeck windows to prevent condensation between the panes.

Stbd main undercarriage (viewed from outboard).
Number 4 engines door is open in view, the little red square in the door being the fire extinguisher access panel for the ground crew fire lance.

Access door under no. 3 Intake looking inboard.
Visible are two pairs of hydraulic ground connections for connecting an external hydraulic rig. The Hyd. bay is the other side of that skin. The 'roof' of this bay is the intake skin. Visible to the left is the front spar.

Access door between no.3&4 intakes looking inboard/fwd. This is one of the cold air units for the cabin conditioning system. It is part of the cooling system for the hot air bled from no.3&4 engines compressors. This is what is behind the small grill between the two engine intakes.

RR Avons

No.4 ECU (Engine) looking outboard.
The big black pipe is the fuel supply pipe. Also visible is the engine driven hydraulic pump (light grey), the red fire access panel in the door as seen previously, the generator (big black thing near the top of the photo) and the funny looking red thing is a mechanical fuel cut off leaver. In the event of a wheels-up landing the guard breaks away on contact with the ground and the lever is pushed backwards shutting off the emergency fuel cocks to the engines.

No.3 ECU looking inboard.
Big black fuel supply pips, engine driven hydraulic pump, the oil tank (top left with sight glass) and also visible in the same area are the fuel cock and throttle control rods (one black one yellow).

Boscombe Down Families Day Circa 1995

This sequence of photos have not been doctored and the camera (35mm film SLR, this was the 90's!) was kept horizontal throughout so that last photo is genuine.

In 1997 'Canopus' left Boscombe Down on her final flight into retirement at Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire where up until recently (due to a change in use of the airfield) she used to carry out high speed taxi runs along the runway.
She is maintained by a team of volunteers and their efforts can be followed on their facebook page linked below:

'Canopus' facebook page

Mobirise

The contents of this website are purely a reflection of my own experiences and knowledge gained whilst working on my various projects. Anything you do based on what you have read here is done so entirely at your own risk.
Personally I wouldn't trust someone like me with a lawn mower! You have been warned! Flapper-bat!

Built with ‌

Offline Website Software