The last original de Havilland Comet left the ground for the first time in six decades at an event last week.

The 1952 Hatfield-designed and built aircraft is one of the star exhibits at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum in London Colney and had to be moved to make way for construction of a new super-hangar.

Resting on a specially built steel cradle, the six-tonne aircraft was lifted just more than a foot by a 50-ton hydraulic crane and moved sideways more than 30 yards to its new position.

Brian Kern, Comet project leader at the museum, said: “This Comet is the only one of the first batch built to survive entirely unaltered with its square windows, so it was a very anxious moment when it was raised and moved.

“Any damage would have been disastrous, but the crane operators performed the job smoothly and expertly, and we were very relieved when they lowered it safely back onto the ground.”

The aircraft is one of three built for French state airline Air France.

After three fatal crashes involving three Comets built for the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC) all Comet 1s were withdrawn from service in 1954 and two were called in by the Royal Aeronautical Establishment for pressure tank testing at the research facility at Farnborough.

One was a BOAC aircraft which, during tests, showed the cause of the crashes to be a major design flaw – fractures in the windows' square corners, so the other was not needed.

Now minus its wings, tail, engines, undercarriage, flight deck and all internal fixtures and fittings, it was cocooned.

In 1989 the aircraft was donated to the de Havilland Museum.

It is currently being restored at the museum and will take pride of place in the new hangar.

Work on the hangar is expected to start by the middle of March this year and museum has applied for a £1.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.