![]() Sliding cockpit hoods were standard and provision was made for a long-range fuselage drop tank. The standard engines were two 8720kg Rolls-Royce Derwent Is, although the first 15 Mk 3s were fitted with Wellands. The F.3 followed the Mk 1 into production and was the first quantity production version. Only 20 of this first version were built, first going to No 616 Squadron, RAF and were used on operational sorties against German V-1 flying-bombs. The first production version of the Meteor (the F.1) was powered by two 7400kg Rolls-Royce Welland 1 turbojet engines and had a cockpit canopy that was side-hinged. Actually the 6530kg Halford-engined F.9/40 was the first version of the Meteor to fly (on 5 March 1943) as the W2B engines (4360kg) installed in another F.9/40 in July 1942 were not ready for flying until June 1943. ![]() The eight original F.9/40 airframes were used to test several different types of British gas turbines including the Rover-built Power Jets W2B, the parent design of the Rolls-Royce Welland with which the Meteor I was fitted the Metropolitan Vickers F.2/1, the first British axial-flow unit to fly (13 November 1943) the Halford H.1, the predecessor to the de Havilland Goblin and the Rolls-Royce Trent, the first turboshaft engine to fly. The Meteor was designed to meet Specification F.9/40, the first such British specification to be issued for a combat aircraft using turbojet engines. Wing loading: 44.Virtual Aircraft Museum / United Kingdom / Gloster. ![]() Powerplant: 2 × Rolls-Royce Derwent 8 centrifugal-flow turbojet engines, 3,500 lbf (16 kN) thrust each.Specifications (Meteor F.8 modified) Artist's impression ![]() 12 Maintenance Unit, the aircraft was sent to RAF Colerne before being preserved at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. Meteor F8 WK935 was retired after a year and after storage at No. Lambert described flying Meteor WK935 in the 30 March 1956 issue of Flight magazine. Although prone pilots were able to control the aircraft as well as a standard Meteor, the extreme forward position with limited rear view presented a problem in mock combat with conventional aircraft. Operational history Testing and evaluation Meteor F8 WK935 at Royal Air Force Museum Cosfordįollowing some 55 hours of flight testing over 99 flights, the results were inconclusive although the prone position concept was feasible, the development of special aviation clothing ( g-suits) offered a simpler solution to the problem of counteracting inertial forces, and the prone position Meteor was no longer needed. The prone pilot's emergency escape involved a complex procedure which included jettisoning the rudder pedals, crawling backward to an escape hatch and retracting the nose wheel. The Armstrong-Whitworth Chief Test Pilot Eric George Franklin carried out the test flights. A Meteor NF 12 tail unit was substituted for the usual F8 tail. The standard fighter cockpit was retained WK935 was never flown solo from the radically modified front cockpit, which incorporated a custom-built couch, offset tiny control column, and suspended rear pedals. The last production Meteor F8, serial WK935, built by Armstrong-Whitworth was selected for modification and joined the Institute in autumn 1954.Īrmstrong-Whitworth carried out the modifications as an "in-house" project. In order to establish the viability of a prone pilot cockpit, the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine required a jet aircraft that could be flown in experimental flight tests. The Bristol Aeroplane Company sought to exploit these advantages by incorporating a prone pilot position in its proposal for a rocket-powered fighter, the Bristol Type 185. While the Reid and Sigrist R.S.4 "Bobsleigh" explored low speed performance 1951–1956, the Royal Air Force soon also needed a higher performance concept aircraft. Secondly, aircrew can withstand greater inertial forces if not sitting upright, a vital consideration given the need for jet combat aircraft to manoeuvre at ever increasing speeds. ![]() Firstly, such a configuration enabled the frontal area of the airframe to be reduced and therefore reduced drag. In the early 1950s the adoption of a prone position cockpit in future combat aircraft designs appeared attractive for two reasons. Along with the Reid and Sigrist R.S.4 "Bobsleigh", the Gloster Meteor was engaged in a proof-of-concept experimental programme that proved in practice that the difficulties in rearward visibility and ejection outweighed the advantages of sustaining higher g effects. A heavily modified Gloster Meteor F8 fighter, the "prone position/prone pilot" Meteor, was used by the Royal Air Force in 19 to evaluate the effects of acceleration/inertia-induced forces while flying in a prone position. ![]()
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