Aft Compartments

Looking aft from Tourist Class towards the pantry and lavatories, with the wardrobe door open.



The pantry unit on the left is a fixed bulkhead in every Comet, but the arrangement of heated beverage containers varied from airline to airline. The tall control panel is for the heated containers, and two timer knobs for “hot cups”, which plugged into trailing sockets. The smaller control panel above the heated containers is for aft compartment lighting, and circuit breakers for shaver sockets for the passengers.



From left to right, the entry to the wardrobe, port lavatory, another fold-down crew seat, with crew storage cabinet above, and the main passenger door. I have calculated animation for the door, but the pull-then-swing action only works in XP-9 (as far as I can see).



The port lavatory, showing “vacant” on the door.



The loo becomes a chair when the lid is down.



A pretty comprehensive dressing table, with drinking water on the left, close to the camera, towel dispenser and bin on the bottom left, two illuminated mirrors, and a rack to stop razors and tooth brushes scattering themselves all over the place. At the bottom of the large mirror, buttons are for water, which comes out of a spout on the soap dish. On the smaller, triangular mirror, the buttons dispense tablet soap, or call the steward. There’s also a “return to seats” sign - not working in X-Plane.



The wardrobe is mainly for coats and things. Ahead, and still within the wardrobe, is the diplomatic locker. The sliding door leads to the aft luggage compartment, known as the “dome compartment”, because it’s within the dome-shaped end of the pressure cabin. Above, in a kind of mezzanine, is additional storage and some of the aircraft’s electrical equipment.



View from the pantry towards the passenger compartment. This entire partition was non-structural, and optional (it’s missing in C/N 6473 / XS-235 / Canopus, for example) or could be moved fore and aft to suit the operator’s seating arrangements, locking into the seat rails. Again, the layout of the unit varied between airlines. This one has four heated food containers, with controls above the cupboards. Below the worktop are storage units for the meal trays for Tourist Class.

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GMM-P (27/01/2009)