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This post is from our Recession Road series, part of our .

We've made a brief stop in Hatfield, home of the , the world's first commercial jet airliner to make it into production. The first prototype took to the skies just over 60 years ago, on 27 July 1949.

Following a number of accidents caused by metal fatigue, the Comet had to be re-designed. The original Comet can be identified by its square windows, but following testing this was found to be one of the factors that led to .

The picture of a model outside the Comet pub is taken on the edge of the well-known landmark the Comet Roundabout.

Update 1350: Thanks to many of you for pointing out that we had badly described the model - it does indeed sport a pair of propellers and is not a jet plane. Many apologies - our next post from the road will hopefully be error-free.

You can read an explanation of our Recession Road series here.

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