Profile – Gloster Meteor

Just 25 minutes later and in the same area, another 616 pilot was engaging a V-1 of his own. This time the British aircraft’s guns worked perfectly and Flying Officer J. K. Rodgers was able to add another V-1 to the squadron’s tally.

The aircraft both pilots were flying was a new twin engined fighter whose performance has actually inferior to many of its contemporaries. With a top speed of 410mph (660kmh), a rate of climb of 2155ft/min (657m/min) and a service ceiling of 40,000 feet (12,192m) this aircraft was easily dealt with by the litter model Spitfires, the Tempest and several other Allied and enemy aircraft. But it was special . . . it had no propellers . . . it was the Allies’ first operational jet aircraft – and their only one to see action in World War II – the Gloster Meteor.

At the beginning of August 1944, the Royal Air Force’s Number 616 ‘South Yorkshire’ Squadron had eight of the new and very secret ‘aeroplanes without propellers’ on strength at its base at Manston on the south east coast of Kent in England. The Gloster Meteor I jet-engined fighter had entered service with the squadron a few weeks earlier and the victories described above were the first Allied jet powered ones of the war. It was an important first step in this next stage in the development of aerial warfare.

While it is well known that the Meteor was not the first jet aircraft to enter service or score a victory in World War II – the Messerschmitt 262 has that honour, entering service three months earlier and scoring its first victory in June when a photo recce Lockheed lightning had been destroyed – the indisputable fact is that the Meteor was the first jet aircraft to serve with a first line operational squadron anywhere in the world. The Me262 didn’t achieve that milestone until two months later, its earlier service being limited to specially formed experimental test units that occasionally indulged in combat.

The British aircraft’s other significance lies in its longevity and adaptability and that as a successful first generation jet fighter the lessons it taught have influenced fighter design since the time it first appeared.

From Pioneer to Beatbox

The development of the jet engine was not an overnight achievement in any of the three countries which had flown aircraft fitted with such powerplants by the time the second World War was just 19 months old. Indeed, the principle of jet propulsion had been demonstrated way back in the·1st century AD, when a Greek philosopher called Hero of Alexandria had built a steam-powered model utilising a pivoted hollow metal sphere with nozzles around its circumference which spun it around.

Rather closer to the world of the 1940s, Frenchman Rene Lorin had expounded the basic principles of jet propulsion using the exhaust gases of an internal combustion engine in 1913; Dr A. A. Griffith of the Royal Aircraft Establishment had begun in·1925 research into the gas turbine engine as a source of aircraft power – albeit via a propeller – and Frank Whittle patented his pure jet practical designs in 1930, although it was to be some years between then and the first airframe application of the Whittle design.

The gap was in fact 11 years, by which time Germany’s Ernst Heinke! had flown his He178 powered by a jet engine designed by Dr Hans-Joact,im Pabst von Ohain (August 1939) and the Italian Caproni company had installed its jet engine into an aircraft designed by Secondo Campini (August 1940).

Germany got its second jet aircraft – the Heinkel He280 – into the air in April 1941 the world’s fourth jet aircraft, the Gloster E. 28/39, powered by a Whittle W. 1 centrifugal-flow gas turbine engine lifted off from British soil for the first time on May 15, 1941.

Unofficially dubbed ‘Pioneer’, this small aircraft had been ordered by the Air Ministry in July 1939 after the potential of Whittle’s work had finally been realised. Whittle’s concepts had initially been rejected by the Air Ministry on the grounds of cost – and a healthy touch of fear of the unknown. That was in 1930 at the time of Whittle initially registered his patents.

Private industry was then turned to, but again little interest was shown. As a career engineer in the RAF, the then Squadron Leader Whittle spent some time in Cambridge, where he was approached by two former RAF officers about the possibility of putting his ideas into practice. With financial assistance from a firm of investment bankers, Whittle and his partners formed Power Jets Ltd and set about building their first jet engine. It made its first batch test in April 1937 and with some sort of proofof-concept now behind them, the Air Ministry began to take an interest – financial and otherwise – in the firm’s activities.

Designed by Gloster’s chief designer, George Carter, the ‘Pioneer’ was a straight-winged single seater with tricycle undercarriage with a nose air intake and tail jet pipe. The aircraft was designed as an experimental fighter with space for four . 303 machine guns and ammunition, although these were never fitted to the two aircraft built.

It was a small aircraft, spanning only 29 feet (8. 84m) and just under 25ft 4ins (7. 7m) long – roughly the size of a Beech Bonanza. Its wing area was 146. 5 square feet (13. 6sqm). Powered by a Power Jets W. 1 engine producing just 860Ib thrust, the first Pioneer (W4041) began taxiing trials in April 1941 and made its first flight the following month in the hands of the company’s chief test pilot, Flt Lt P. E. G. Sayer. The second aircraft, W4046, was powered by the more powerful W. 28 engine and first flew in March 1943.

It was realised quite early that the development of an engine of sufficient power to weight in a fully armed and equipped fighter would take some time. The Pioneer’s top speed with the W. 1 engine was only 366mph (589kmh) at 15,000ft and its service ceiling just 32,000ft. The decision was therefore taken that any operational jet fighter would need to have two engines in order to endow it with adequate performance. One of George Carter’s twin-engined designs had Air Ministry specification F. 9/40 written around it and approval given for its construction in February 1941. Twelve airframes were ordered (later reduced to eight) in which engine and equipment trials would be carried out, this aircraft ultimately emerging as the Gloster G. 41 Meteor.

A sidelight is the fact that the name ‘Meteor’ didn’t come about easily. The titles Rampage, Terrific, Terrifier, Thunderbolt, Tempest, Cyclone, Avenger, Annihilator, Ace and Reaper had all been put forward by both the Air Ministry and Gloster, but some clashed with other manufacturer’s aircraft (or planned aircraft) and one engine and some were just silly, so the name Meteor was finally settled on despite some misgivings from Gloster. Not that it really mattered, as service pilots soon bestowed the nickname ‘Meatbox’ on this historic aircraft.

Although the structural design of the twin pod, straight wing, cruciform-tailed Meteor armed with four nose-mounted 20mm Hispano cannon (the day fighter version’s standard armament with 195 rounds per gun throughout its production life) was fairly conventional monocoque light alloy, there were numerous problems associated with the positioning of the engines, much time being devoted to this area of design and construction.

In addition, the power plants were proving to be a problem.

Power Jets had by now come under the control of Rover and they were running late with the development of their W. 28 engine. It would not be long before this uneasy relationship would be terminated, with Rolls Royce taking over the development of the Whittle-type engines, the W. 2 emerging as the Rolls Royce Welland.

But Whittle’s outfit wasn’t the only one developing jet engines. At de Havilland, Major F. B. Halford _ had been working on a centrifugal-flow engine of his own. The Halford H. 1 would later become known as the de Havilland Goblin as was fitted to the Vampire, but for now it appeared to be coming along well and was further advanced than the W. 2. In addition, MetropolitanVickers’ axial-flow jet, the F. 2, was rapidly reaching a – stage where it could be installed in an aircraft.

The first of eight prototype Meteors, DG202, was not in fact the first to fly, due entirely to the inability of Rover/Power Jets to provide airworthy engines of sufficient thrust. That honour went to DG206, the fifth aircraft of the prototype batch, which took to the air from Cranwell for the first time on March 5, 1943 in the hands of Mike Daunt with two Halford H. 1 engines providing the motive power.

DG205 was the next to fly- with Rover W. 2B/23 engines, on June 12, then DG202 finally took to the air on July 24. Two more of the prototype batch made their maiden flights before the end of 1943-DG203 with W. 2/500 engines on November 9 and DG204 just four days later. The latter was a significant event in that it represented the first flight of a British axial-flow turbojet in the form of the Metropolitan-Vickers F. 2. DG208 and 209 (with W. 2Bs) flew during the course of 1944 and the Goblin (or Halford H. 1B) powered DG207 in mid-1945.

Marks and Models

Twenty Meteor F Mk 1 s (for the purposes of simplicity I’ll use Arabic appellations like F. 1, F. 3 and F. 4 throughout this article even though Roman numerals were used- F. I, F. 111 and F. IV – until the end of the war) were ordered to follow on from the prototype batch, the first of these (EE210) flying in January 1944 and shortly afterwards being delivered to the USA in exchange for a Bell XP-59 Airacomet, the result of a deal made during the previous year.

These early production aircraft were in all respects similar to the W. 2B/23-powered prototypes, the name Welland 1 being applied to this engine, which now produced 1,700Ib thrust and gave the Meteor the performance noted earlier.

It was remarkable how quickly the Meteor got into service with 616 Squadron. There was certainly official enthusiasm for the type, probably inspired by Winston Churchill’s witnessing of an impressive demonstration of the Pioneer prototype in 1943.

616 took delivery of the first of their 12 Meteor 1s in July 1944 and claimed the destruction of ten V-1s before moving to Belgium early in 1945. There is however no record of the Meteors ever having met the Messerschmitt 262 in combat.

There were several particularly interesting Meteors in that initial production batch. One was experimentally fitted with two Rolls Royce Trent turboprops and made its first flight in this form in September 1945 as the world’s first turboprop aircraft. The Trent was a derivative of the forthcoming Rolls Royce Derwent turbojet – itself developed from the Welland – and the engine that would power all future Marks of Meteor.

The first Meteor to fly with the 2000Ib thrust Derwent 1 was from the initial batch- this aircraft also being the first example with a pressure cabin- while another Meteor was fitted with a crude afterburning system in late in 1944. The problems – were numerous and frequent, although the reheated Meteor did exhibit a much-improved rate of climb and top speed {up 50mph/ 80kph) albeit at the cost of greatly increased fuel consumption.

The next operational version of the Meteor was to be the Goblin-powered F. 2, but this was abandoned due to all available engines being needed for the de Havilland Vampire. The Meteor F. 3 therefore appeared next, the last 195 out of 210 examples of which featured the Derwent 1 engine. Most had a ‘blown’ Malcolm-type sliding hood in place of the hinged and heavily framed type found on earlier Meteors. Fixed armament remained the standard four 20mm Hispano cannon.

Meanwhile, operations continued, 616 Squadron receiving its first Meteor F. 3s in January 1945 and using them in the closing weeks of the war on ground attack missions from their Belgium base. They were joined late in the piece by the RAF’s second operational jet fighter squadron, 504. A lack of Luftwaffe opposition though gave neither squadron much opportunity for air-to-air action- it was almost exclusively air-to-ground.

Although the direct flow Derwent 1 gave the Meteor F. 3 a little more ‘grunt’ than its reverse flowWelland-engined predecessor, the first major improvement in the Meteor’s performance came with the F. 4, the prototype of which first flew in May 1945. The secret was the new Derwent 5 producing a maximum thrust of 3500lb. The increase in performance was staggering, top speed increasing to 580mph (933km/h) at sea level, service ceiling to 50,000 feet {the highest of any version) and time to 30,000 feet improved from 15 minutes in the F. 3 to only six minutes in the F. 4. This put the Meteor’s performance far and away above any other fighter in the world at the time, a fact proven by two world absolute speed records set in 1945 anc1 1946.

The first, of 606. 379mph (975. 84km/h) was set on November 7, 1945 by Gp Capt H. J. Wilson in an F. 3 converted to F. 4 specifications by the fitting of Derwent 5 engines. The record increased to 615. 778mph (990. 97km/h) in September of the following year, this time set by a full production F. 4 flown by Gp Capt E. M. Donaldson.

Apart from the more powerful engines, the Meteor F. 4 featured a fully pressurised cockpit, a 100-gallon (454 litres) ventral tank {plus wing tanks later on) and a reduced span wing (from 43ft/ 13. 1m to 37ft 2in/11. 32m) to facilitate a better rate of roll and more speed.

The F. 4 was the first version of the Meteor to achieve quantity production and of the nearly 700 built, some 45 were put together by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, a company that would become more heavily involved in Meteor production in the future. Deliveries of the F. 4 to the RAF’s squadrons began in 1947, the type sharing the service’s front-line air defence duties with the Vampire and equipping some 22 regular and RAuxAF squadrons.

The F. 4 was also the first mark to be exported, with Argentina receiving 100 (50 were ex-RAF machines), Belgium 48, Denmark 20, Egypt 12, France 2 and Holland 60. A single ex-RAF aircraft also flew with the RAAF.

The Meteor 5 was a one-off photo reconnaissance conversion of an F. 4, the F. 6 was a project for aircraft similar to the much-produced F. 8 (and not, as often stated a swept wing derivative of the aircraft) while the next production version to appear was the tandem two-seat Meteor T. 7.

Based on the F. 4 with that version’s reduced span wings and Derwent 5 engines or the similarly rated Derwent 8, the trainer Meteor featured a lengthened forward fuselage {by 2ft 6in/0. 76m to a total length of 43ft 6in/13. 25m) to accommodate the second cockpit, a heavily framed and side hinging canopy, no armament and the ability to carry three external fuel tanks. The prototype was developed as a private venture by Gloster and carried the civil registration G-AKPK on its maiden flight in March 1948.

The world’s first dual-control jet trainer almost immediately set out on an extensive demonstration tour, which saw the aircraft flown by the pilots of five nations. Gloster’s faith in the concept was soon rewarded with orders over the years which resulted in a total of 682 being built for the RAF and for export to Holland, Belgium, Egypt, Denmark, Brazil and Israel. In addition, ex-RAF aircraft went to Syria, France and the RAAF also received nine aircraft while some of the customers mentioned above also obtained substantial quantities of ex-RAF machines. Over 50 T. 7s were delivered to the Royal Navy.

Many were used to experimental work, appearing in roles such as missile and weapons system trials, while one of the several Meteors used by the Martin-Baker company over the years- a T. 7 – is still in use for the testing of ejection seats. This aircraft, with a modified canopy allowing ejections from the rear cockpit, only flies about two dozen hours per annum but is reckoned to be capable of flying into the 1990s as it has less than 2,200 hours logged. This aircraft is known as a Mark 7½ . . . it is one of several Meteor trainers built with the later F. 8 style ‘squared-off’ tail design.

The Meteor T. 7 entered service with the RAF in late 1948 and the last aircraft came off Gloster’s production line nearly six years later. In the meantime, the aircraft had become the RAF’s standard advanced trainer, while no fewer than 59 RAF operational squadrons used the T. 7 for operational training, communications or hack roles.

The last single seat purely fighter variant to appear was the F. 8. First flown in October 1948 this variant featured the 3500Ib thrust Derwent 8 engines as fitted to later T. 7s and the shorter span wings of that aircraft and the F. 4. The major external differences between this and earlier marks was the fitment of the ‘square’ tail surfaces, the result of extensive testing to cure the Meteor’s tendency to pitch up as the fuel and ammunition loads lightened.

Another external difference was the adaptation of a one-piece clear cockpit canopy, underneath which was – perhaps surprisingly for the first time on any mark of Meteor a Martin-Baker ejection seat. Later F. 8s also featured larger diameter engine intakes which helped the Derwent’s power rating, a lengthened fuselage aft of the cockpit housing more fuel (overall length increased to 44ft 7in/13. 58m) and external armament in the form of eight air to ground rockets was available.

At the time of its entry into RAF service in June 1950, the Meteor F. 8 was well outclassed by swept wing fighters such as the Sabre and MiG-15 and the first of the true supersonic fighters – MiG-19, F-104, F-102, F-100 etc- were also in various stages of advanced design. Despite this, the F. 8 became the most built of all the Meteors, a total of 1,187 leaving the factories of Gloster and Armstrong Whitworth, while a further 335 were built by Fokker in Holland-155 for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, 150 for the Belgium Air Force and 30 more for that Air Force in the form of components to be assembled by Avians Fairey in Belgium.

The Meteor F. 8 was widely exported to other countries as well, with customers including Australia (97), Denmark (20), and Egypt (12, after much vacillation, cancellation and reinstatement of the orders due to various crises in the area), Israel {11) and Syria (12). In addition to their licence-built aircraft, both Holland and Belgium received additional aircraft from UK stocks.

One hundred Meteor F. 8s were ordered for the Royal Australian Air Force, of which 97 were ultimately delivered, serving with 22, 23, 75 and 77 Squadrons. It was the latter unit that gave the RAAF more combat experience with the Meteor than even the RAF, while operating in Korea.

Combat Over Korea

Meanwhile, on April 1, 1952, the Australian Government’s Defence Preparations Committee approved the purchase of 36 Meteor F. 8s from the British Government at a cost of £1. 7 million ($3. 4m). It was the third order, the initial buy of 36 Meteor F. 8s and 2 Meteor T. 7s having already been increased by a second for 22 more F. 8s. The new order was made so that 77 Squadron, RAAF, could remain operational over Korea until mid-1953. The Squadron had been actively engaged in the Korean War as part of the United Nations forces since the beginning, initially flying Mustangs.

The arrival of Russian-built MiG-15s in Korean skies in November 1950, marked the beginning of a new era in air combat. UN air forces did not possess a plane to match it until the introduction of the F-86A Sabre in December. There were no Sabres available for the Australians so they had to be content with the Meteor, at that time the RAF’s front-line fighter, but a comparison between the MiG and the Meteor was not encouraging. The MiG-15 did not make its maiden flight until June, 1947 and in terms of performance, the Meteor’s vintage showed The first batch arrived on the carrier HMS Warrior on February 24, 1951. Early missions over MiG Alley were without incident and it was not until August 25 that the first inconclusive clash took place. Four days later, the MiGs drew first blood when one Meteor was lost, (W/O Ron Guthrie bailed out and was captured) and another was heavily damaged. In this and in subsequent encounters, the communists adopted highly effective tactics. Allied pilots were hampered by the restrictions of the UN Command. They were directed never to fly across the Yalu River into Chinese airspace. Consequently, the enemy could take off safely from their Manchurian bases without fear of attack, form up and then climb until they were well above the Allied formations before crossing into Korea. The MiGs always retained the initiative attacked from above and maintained a numerical advantage of about four to one. More Sabres were needed but it was not until December 1 that a second USAF F-86 wing became operational.

On the very same day the Meteors were involved in a huge dogfight over Sunchon when the squadron was bounced by 50 MiGs. The Australians scored their first confirmed kills when two MiGs were claimed but three Meteors failed to return. P/O Burce Gogerly attacked a MiG which was hammering another Meteor. He fired a five-second burst. The Russian-built machine took heavy punishment and exploded in flames as it fell. The second MiG was credited as a squadron kill (Dr Robert O’Neill in ‘Australia in the Korean War 1950-53 Vol II: Combat Operations reduces this claim to one MiG-15 destroyed and one probably destroyed).

Of the lost pilots, Sgt Bruce Thomson and New Zealander Sgt Vance Drummond bailed out and were captured but the third, Sgt Ernest Armit, was killed.

Without a plane to match the MiG’s performance, the Australians could only look forward to more losses so no one was very surprised when they were taken off fighter sweep duties the next day. Shortly afterwards, 77 Squadron was given a new task – ground attack. In this role the Meteor proved highly successful. It was a steady platform for both gun and rocket, could sustain tremendous damage and still fly and had the additional advantage of two engines. By the war’s end the squadron had been credited with the destruction of 3,700 buildings, 1,500 vehicles and 16 bridges. Flak however became the main enemy and accounted for most Meteor losses during the rest of the war.

MiGs were encountered on odd occasions but now at lower altitudes where the Meteors stood a better chance. One was probably destroyed on May 4, 1952. P/O John Surman found himself with a sitting duck. He poured cannon shells into it as he closed to 25 metres. The MiG took no evasive action and went down through low clouds. It was only counted as a ‘probable’ because it was not seen to crash.

Four days later P/O Bill Simmonds saw red tracer bullets skim over his wing. The attacking MiG overshot and Simmonds slipped onto its tail and fired. It fell in a spiral dive and crashed after the pilot bailed out at 13,000 feet (4,000m).

In October, the MiGs shot down another Meteor. F/O Oliver Cruikshank, an RAF exchange officer serving with the Australians, was killed while attempting to bail out.

The last air battle occurred on March 27, 1953 and the MIGS came off second best. Tasmanian, Sgt George Hale, attacked two MiGs pursuing two American RF-80 Shooting Stars and sent one down belching black smoke but he did not observe it crash because more MiGs joined the fight (the cockpit portion of this Meteor presently resides in the Mildura Warbirds Museum). He damaged another MiG before running out of ammunition and breaking off the action. The plane of Hale’s wingman,. Dave Irlam, sustained numerous hits. One MIG had been probably destroyed and another damaged for one damaged Meteor.

Korea was not the last time Meteors saw action. Argentinean F. 4s were used during the revolution against the Peron regime in 1955, while a year later Egypt lost two of its aircraft in actions against the Israelis.

The Meteor F. 8 remained in front-line service in the RAF until the Hawker Hunter replaced it in squadron service during the course of the 1950’s, some 34 operational units flying the aircraft until the last was retired from such duties in 1957. Production of the F. 8 had meanwhile ended in April of 1954.

The last single-seat Meteors built were the FR. 9 and PR. 10, each type entering service in late 1950. The FR. 9 was based on the F. 8 with that mark’s tail unit and short-span wing. An elongated nose housed a Type F. 24 oblique camera and the four cannon armament was retained. The PR. 10 was designed for higher altitude work, combining the FR. 9s oblique camera in the nose (with guns removed) with two F. 52 cameras in the rear fuselage. Structurally, the PR. 10 was a bit of a ‘bitser’, featuring the wing centre section and Derwent 8s of the Marks 8 and 9, the early style rounded tail, the original long span wings and – after modification – the clear canopy and ejector seat of the F. 8.

Production amounted to 126 FR. 9s and 59 PR. 10s and between them they served with seven RAF squadrons as well as being exported to Écuador (12 FR. 9s), Israel (7 FR. 9s) and Syria (2 FR. 9s). All these aircraft were from RAF stocks.

Meteor Conversions

Sir Alan Cobham pioneered the idea of in-flight refuelling in Britain and in 1936 he formed his own company, Flight Refuelling Ltd to develop systems to make it practical. In 1949, Meteor F. 3 EE397, was allocated to the company to investigate the prospect of refuelling jet aircraft from flying tankers and on April 24, 1949, this aircraft fitted with a nose probe made its first successful probe/drogue contact with a Lancaster tanker. After further testing, four months later an endurance record for a Meteor of 12 hours 3 minutes was established using the technique. It was the beginning of a very successful venture.

In 1954 the company became Gloster’s main sub-contractor for refurbishing Meteors before their resale overseas or reissue to RAF squadrons and a total of 650 were modified. Additionally. Flight Refuelling became involved in the conversion of Meteors into high-speed pilotless drones. The first remote control pilotless takeoff was achieved on January 17, 1955, using a modified T. 7. VW413. As the various marks of Meteors were superseded in service they became available for conversion and single-seat Mk. 4s and Mk. 8 were changed to Meteor U15s and U16s respectively. Numerous U15s were operated by the Weapons Research Establishment at Woomera. Likewise, as the CAC Sabre entered RAAF service, surplus Meteor F. 8s were converted to U21 and U21A standards by Fairey Aviation Company of Australasia Pty Ltd at Bankstown. Utilising conversion kits from Flight Refuelling Ltd.

Night Fighters

By the time the 1950s were approaching, the RAF began to realise that its standard night fighter, the Mosquito NF. 36 was reaching the end of its usefulness as the new jet fighters and bombers made interception increasingly difficult. The decision was made, therefore, to develop the Meteor in this role, the two-seat T. 7 serving as the basis of the design, which was ordered under specification F. 24/48. Although obviously a stop gap, the night fighter Meteors served a useful purpose until the Gloster Javelin dedicated all-weather (or night) fighter began entering service in early 1956.

The concept was simple enough. Using the T. 7 fuselage as a basis, an elongated nose (increasing the aircraft’s length to 48ft 6in/14. 78m) to house the Al. 10 radar was fitted, the four 20mm Hispano cannon were moved to the original long-span wings and 160 rounds each carried, the F. 8s square tail reappeared and that version’s Derwent 8s installed. The rear cockpit was modified to include radar displays for the operator though no ejection seat was able to be fitted under the heavily framed T. 7 style canopy.

The prototype was actually a rebuilt T. 7, this aircraft making its first flight in May 1951. As the Meteor NF. 11, the aircraft entered RAF service just three months later and ultimately served with 10 RAF squadrons. A total of 341 were built and like all night fighter Meteors, exclusively by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Of that total, 20 new aircraft were supplied to Denmark, while ex-RAF units went to France (32), Belgium (24) and Australia, which received four for evaluation of which three retained their RAF serial numbers.

Although numerically out of sequence, the next version to enter service was the NF. 13, in March 1953. These aircraft differed from the NF. 11 only in their equipment fit and only 40 were built for the RAF, serving with three squadrons. Of these, six ultimately went to Syria, six to Egypt, two to France and six to Israel.

Of the Meteor NF variants, the Mark 13 was the lowest performing due to the weight of its extra equipment. While all the night fighters had a top speed in the 580-590mph (933-950km/h) range, the NF. 13 could only manage a service ceiling of around 36,000 feet, some 4000 feet lower than the other versions and with a reduced rate of climb.

The Meteor NF. 12 remedied this to some extent by fitting of the definitive Derwent engine, the 3800lb thrust Mk. 9 to most of the 100 aircraft built. Entering service in March 1954, the NF. 12 served with seven RAF squadrons and featured the more cap-able Westinghouse APS-21 radar (which the British called Al. 21) in an even longer nose that stretched the Meteor length to 49ft 11in (15. 2m). The extra nose space made access to the avionics much easier as well as helped the performance due to the fuselage’s better fineness ratio. To restore directional stability, small fin extensions were added to the fin/tailplane junction at the leading edge.

The Meteor NF. 14 was the final variant of Britain’s first jet fighter. This version had the American radar housed in a still longer nose (overall length was now 51ft 4in/15. 64m), Derwent 9s and a completely new full-blown clear canopy. Internally, there was a myriad of detail changes that corrected many of the night fighter Meteor’s faults. A major modification was the incorporation of aileron spring tabs and a rudder yaw damper, features which combined to vastly improve the aircraft’s control response at high Mach numbers – a major pilot’s criticism of the earlier versions. The NF. 14 served with a dozen RAF squadrons before the last home defence Meteor unit was replaced with Javelins in June 1959. NF. 14s went on to serve in Singapore and took an active part in the Malayan Emergency of the nineteen fifties.

The last operational sortie of a Meteor in front-line RAF service took place in August 1961 when a Singapore-based NF. 14 of 60 Squadron undertook a final patrol on the night of the 17th.

Delivery of the last of 100 NF. 14s in May 1955 brought to an end the production life of the first jet aircraft to achieve regular squadron service. Different sources quote different numbers of Meteors produced during its 12 year production life, but a figure of around 3,866 seems fairly close to the mark, including those aircraft built in Europe and the 1055 F. 4s, F. 8s and NFs built by Armstrong Whitworth. That total has never been surpassed by any other British jet aircraft, so it’s perhaps ironic that Britain’s first should also be its most numerically successful one.