General

The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' first operational jet. Designed by George Carter, it first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on July 27th, 1944 with 616 squadron of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Gloster Meteor was not an aerodynamically advanced aircraft but the Gloster design team succeeded in producing an effective jet fighter that served the RAF and other air forces for decades. Meteors saw action with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in the Korean War and remained in service with numerous air forces until the 1970s. Two Meteors, WL419 and WA638, remain in service with the Martin-Baker company as ejection seat testbeds.

The RAF initially reserved the aircraft to counter the V-1 flying bomb threat with No. 616's Meteors seeing action for the first time on July 27th, 1944 with three aircraft active over Kent. After some problems, especially with jamming guns, the first two V1 'kills' occurred on August 4th. The Meteor accounted for 14 flying bombs. The anti-V1 missions of July 27th, 1944 were the Meteor's (and the Royal Air Force's) first operational jet combat missions.

A major change was the Meteor F.Mk.4 that went into production in 1947, by which time there were 16 RAF squadrons equipped with Meteors. The first Mk. 4 prototype flew on May 17th, 1945. The Mk. 4 had the Rolls-Royce Derwent 5 engines (a smaller version of the famous Nene), the wings were 86.4 cm shorter than the Mk. 3 and had blunter tips (derived from the world speed record prototypes), a stronger airframe, fully pressurized cockpit, lighter ailerons (to improve maneuverability) and rudder trim adjustments to reduce snaking. The Mk. 4 could also be fitted with a drop tank under each wing while experiments were performed with carriage of under wing stores and also in lengthened fuselage models. The Mk. 4 was 170 mph faster than the Mk. 1 at sea level (585 against 415), although the reduced wings impaired its rate of climb.

As improved jet fighters began to emerge, Gloster decided to perform a redesign of the Mk. 4 to keep it up to date, while retaining as much of the manufacturing tooling of the Mk. 4 as possible. The result was the Meteor F. Mk.8 which was to be the definitive production model, serving as a major Royal Air Force single-seat fighter until the introduction of the Hawker Hunter and the Supermarine Swift.

The Mk. 8 also featured a fuselage stretch of 76 centimetres, intended to shift the aircraft's centre of gravity and also eliminate the use of ballast that had been necessary in earlier marks. The Mk. 8 incorporated uprated engines, Derwent 8s, with 16 kN (1,633 kgp / 3,600 lbf) thrust each combined with structural strengthening, a Martin Baker ejection seat and a 'blown' teardrop cockpit canopy that provided improved pilot visibility.

Characteristics

In service with 349 squadron

In the late forties, the Belgian government was urgently seeking new fighter aircraft to cover for the growing demand of fighter aircraft. Belgium had to provide more then 20 squadrons to the newly formed NATO partnership. This led them to the Gloster 'Meteor' F. Mk. 4, which was build as the RAF premiere fighter aircraft. The order of 40 aircraft only covered two squadrons, including 349 squadron. In May of 1949 the first jets arrived and Belgium entered the Jet age.

The aircraft performed to everybody's satisfaction and Belgium later decided to buy another 240 aircraft from the upgraded Mk. 8 version. This version was first used to equip a number of other day-time fighter squadrons, but was - in February of 1953 - also used to upgrade the initial badge delivered to 349 squadron. In total, the 'Meteor' served 349 squadron for a period of 8 years, which was quite an achievement in that time.