Gloster Meteor. Photo. Characteristics.

United Kingdom

A type: Twin-engine fighter, night fighter and advanced training aircraft

Crew: Pilot (full-time fighter), the pilot and the navigator (in the night fighter) and two pilots, arranged one behind the other (in training aircraft)

The only one of the allied jet planes that got to the front in the Second World War, the Meteor aircraft 1 had significant flaws, because its large size and wing area did not match the thrust of its engines of the company "Welland" (Welland). Nevertheless, these features were developed thanks to the finishing works performed by Rolls-Royce, which led to the fact that the Meteor aircraft, since the modification of the F 3, was equipped with much better turbojet engines of the Derwent series, . The aircraft was the main day fighter of the Command of Fighter Aviation and the Second Tactical Air Force in the period from 1945 to the beginning of the 1950-ies.

However, his ability to perform other tasks was also used by creating a two-seater night fighter equipped with a Whitworth radar from the Amstrong Armstrong company. The first of these aircraft (under the designation NF 11) came into operation in the 1951 year, and the training aircraft T 7 - in the 1949 year. The last of these aircraft was the first jet training aircraft in the Royal Air Force. The latest modification of the day fighter was the F 8, the main aircraft of the Fighter Aviation Command from 1950 to 1955 of the year. 

The latest modification of the aircraft "Meteor", trapped in the Royal Air Force, became FR 9, created to address the combined challenges of tactical fighter and reconnaissance, which had previously been characterized by the plane "Spitfire» FR 18. At the same time the plane PR 10 replaced planes "Spitfire» PR XI and 19 in the problems of high-altitude strategic reconnaissance. Over the last assembly of the aircraft "Meteor" (T modification 7) in 1954, the total production reached 3974 copies.

Basic data

Dimensions (to modify the F 8):

• Length: 13,59 m
• Wingspan: 11,3 m
• Height: 4,22 m

The weight:

• BLANK: 4820 kg
• Maximum take-off: 8664 kg

Aircraft performance characteristics:

• Maximum speed: 958 km / h
• Range: 1610 km

Power point: Two turbojet engine "Derwent» 8 company "Rolls Royce"

Power: 32 kN thrust

Date of first flight:

• 5 March 1943 year

The surviving airworthy modifications: T 7 (Mod), F 8, NF 11 and D 16