People are passengers too.

Ok, readers, back on track. More of what we love. Explosions, flaming crashes and all done in the name of science.

No surprise at all that by the end of WWII, the military jet was moving ahead almost daily in capability, range and, dare I say it, ease of use. Fires, flame outs, explosions all dropped off as engineers and pilots got a grip on the new technology. Purpose built aircraft with real performance began to emerge and find their way into the next wars.

So too, as the years after 1945 dragged on, the technology began to leak out into the commercial sphere. The jetliner was close.

The first "jetliner" was a modified Lancastrian. So just what is a Lancastrian? They were modified Lancaster bombers used for transport and passenger service during the tail end of WWII and through the early 50's.

The airplane was used to test jet engines for use in commercial airliners. Typically the outer 2 piston engines were replaced with jet engines. They were still a little leery of equipping this rig with 4 jets. The very first flight occurred in the fall of 1945. Powered by 2 Nene turbojets and 2 Rolls Royce Merlin power plants this was the first jet powered aircraft to carry passengers.

All sorts of variants ensued but the most noteworthy was the 1947 version that used the de Havilland Ghost 50 turbojet engine, the engine slated to power the first real jetliner, the Comet 1.

At least one version had captured German rockets tied under the wings too. Now that's more like it.