Editing De Havilland Comet (section)

===Later service===
[[File:Comet Canopus.jpg|thumb|Comet 4C ''Canopus'' on display at the [[Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome]] in [[Leicestershire]], England]]

In 1959, BOAC began shifting its Comets from transatlantic routes{{refn|The Feb 1959 OAG shows eight transatlantic Comets a week out of London, plus 10 BOAC Britannias and 11 DC-7Cs. In April 1960, 13 Comets, 19 Britannias and 6 DC-7Cs. Comets quit flying the North Atlantic in October 1960 (but reportedly made a few flights in summer 1964).{{citation needed|date=April 2021}} |group=N}} and released the Comet to associate companies, making the Comet 4's ascendancy as a premier airliner brief. Besides the 707 and DC-8, the introduction of the [[Vickers VC10]] allowed competing aircraft to assume the high-speed, long-range passenger service role pioneered by the Comet.<ref>Lo Bao 1996, p. 13.</ref> In 1960, as part of a government-backed consolidation of the British aerospace industry, de Havilland itself was acquired by Hawker Siddeley, within which it became a wholly owned division.<ref name=post>[http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/online-exhibitions/dehavilland/post_war.cfm "De Havilland – Post War"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110625135746/http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/online-exhibitions/dehavilland/post_war.cfm |date=25 June 2011}}, ''rafmuseum.org.uk''. Retrieved 30 May 2012</ref>

In the 1960s, orders declined, a total of 76 Comet 4s being delivered from 1958 to 1964. In November 1965, BOAC retired its Comet 4s from revenue service; other operators continued commercial passenger flights with the Comet until 1981. [[Dan-Air]] played a significant role in the fleet's later history and, at one time, owned all 49 remaining airworthy civil Comets.<ref>Swanborough 1980, p. 35.</ref> On 14 March 1997 a Comet 4C [[United Kingdom military aircraft serials|serial]] ''XS235'' and named ''Canopus'',<ref name=d5/> which had been acquired by the British [[Minister of Technology|Ministry of Technology]] and used for radio, radar and avionics trials, made the last documented production Comet flight.<ref name=walker169>Walker 2000, p. 169.</ref>