The Gloster Meteor is the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. It was designed and primarily produced by the Gloster Aircraft Company, although its development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneered by Frank Whittle and his company, Power Jets Ltd.
Development of the Meteor began in 1940, while work on its engines had been under way as early as 1936. It made its maiden flight in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with No. 616 Squadron RAF. The Meteor was not a sophisticated aircraft in its aerodynamics, but proved to be a successful combat fighter. Gloster's 1946 civil Meteor F.4 demonstrator G-AIDC was the first civilian-registered jet aircraft in the world. Several major variants of the Meteor incorporated technological advances during the 1940s and 1950s. Thousands of Meteors were built to fly with the RAF and other air forces and remained in use for several decades. Slower and less heavily armed than its German counterpart, the jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262, the Meteor saw limited action in the Second World War. Meteors of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fought in the Korean War. Several other operators such as Argentina, Egypt and Israel flew Meteors in later regional conflicts. Specialised variants of the Meteor were developed for use in photographic aerial reconnaissance and as night fighters.
The Meteor was also used for research and development purposes and to break several aviation records. On 7 November 1945, the first official airspeed record by a jet aircraft was set by a Meteor F.3 at . In 1946, this record was broken when a Meteor F.4 reached a speed of . Other performance-related records were broken in categories including flight time endurance, rate of climb, and speed. On 20 September 1945, a heavily modified Meteor I, powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent turbine engines driving propellers, became the first turboprop aircraft to fly.King Flight 27 May 1955, p. 727. On 10 February 1954, a specially adapted Meteor F.8, the "Meteor Prone Pilot", which placed the pilot into a prone position to counteract inertial forces, took its first flight.Young 1985, p. 83.
In the 1950s, the Meteor became increasingly obsolete as more nations developed jet fighters, many of these newcomers having adopted a swept wing instead of the Meteor's conventional straight wing; in RAF service, the Meteor was replaced by newer types such as the Hawker Hunter and Gloster Javelin. , two Meteors, G-JSMA and G-JWMA, remain in active service with the Martin-Baker company as ejection seat testbeds. One further aircraft in the USA remains airworthy, as does another in Australia.
Development
Origins
The development of the turbojet-powered Gloster Meteor was a collaboration between the Gloster Aircraft Company and Frank Whittle's firm, Power Jets Ltd. Whittle formed Power Jets Ltd in March 1936 to develop his ideas of jet propulsion, Whittle himself serving as the company's chief engineer.Pavelec 2007, pp. 45–46. For several years, attracting financial backers and aviation firms prepared to take on Whittle's radical ideas was difficult. In 1931, Armstrong-Siddeley had evaluated and rejected Whittle's proposal, finding it to be technically sound but at the limits of engineering capability.Pavelec 2007, pp. 43–44. Securing funding was a persistently worrying issue throughout the early development of the engine.Golley and Gunston 2010, pp. 92–94. The first Whittle prototype jet engine, the Power Jets WU, began running trials in early 1937; shortly afterwards, both Sir Henry Tizard, chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee, and the Air Ministry gave the project their support.Pavelec 2007, pp. 48–50.
On 28 April 1939, Whittle made a visit to the premises of the Gloster Aircraft Company, where he met several key figures, such as George Carter, Gloster's chief designer.Golley and Gunston 2010, p. 139. Carter took a keen interest in Whittle's project, particularly when he saw the operational Power Jets W.1 engine, and quickly used it as the basis for several rough proposals of various aircraft designs. Independently, Whittle had also been producing proposals for a high-altitude jet-powered bomber, although following the start of the Second World War and the Battle for France, a greater national emphasis arose on fighter aircraft.Golley and Gunston 2010, pp. 156, 165. Power Jets and Gloster quickly formed a mutual understanding around mid-1939.Golley and Gunston 2010, p. 127.
In spite of ongoing infighting between Power Jets and several of its stakeholders, the Air Ministry contracted Gloster in late 1939 to manufacture a prototype aircraft powered by one of Whittle's new turbojet engines.Pavelec 2007, pp. 168–169. The single-engined proof-of-concept Gloster E28/39, the first British jet-powered aircraft, conducted its maiden flight on 15 May 1941, flown by Gloster's chief test pilot, Flight Lieutenant Philip "Gerry" Sayer.Boyne 2002, p. 261. The success of the E.28/39 proved the viability of jet propulsion, and Gloster pressed ahead with designs for a production fighter aircraft.Boyne 2002, pp. 261–262. Due to the limited thrust available from early jet engines, it was decided that subsequent production aircraft would be powered by a pair of turbojet engines.Spick 2002, pp. 169–170.
In 1940, for a "military load" of , the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) had advised that work on an aircraft of all-up weight, with a total static thrust of should be started, with an design for the expected, more powerful, W.2 and axial engine designs. George Carter's calculations based on the RAE work and his own investigations were that a aircraft with two or four 20 mm cannons and six 0.303 machine guns would have a top speed of at sea level and at . In January 1941 Gloster were told by Lord Beaverbrook that the twin jet fighter was of "unique importance", and that the company was to stop work on a night-fighter development of their F.9/37 to Specification F.18/40.Buttler 2004, p. 193.
Prototypes
In August 1940, Carter presented Gloster's initial proposals for a twin-engined jet fighter with a tricycle undercarriage. On 7 February 1941, Gloster received an order for twelve prototypes (later reduced to eight) under Specification F9/40.James 1971, pp. 245–248. A letter of intent for the production of 300 of the new fighter, initially to be named Thunderbolt, was issued on 21 June 1941; to avoid confusion with the USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt which had been issued with the same name to the RAF in 1944, the aircraft's name was subsequently changed to Meteor.James 1971, p. 247.Goulding 1986, p. 144. During the aircraft's secretive development, employees and officials made use of the codename Rampage to refer to the Meteor, as similarly the de Havilland Vampire would initially be referred to as the Spider Crab. Test locations and other key project information were also kept secret.Shacklady 1962, p. 25.
Although taxiing trials were carried out in 1942, it was not until the following year that any flights took place due to production and approval holdups with the Power Jets W.2 engine powering the Meteor.Butler and Buttler 2006, pp. 11–12. On 26 November 1942 production of the Meteor was ordered to stop due to the delays at subcontractor Rover, which was struggling to manufacture the W.2 engines on schedule; considerable interest was shown in Gloster's E.1/44 proposal for a single-engine fighter, unofficially named Ace.Shacklady 1962, pp. 17–19. Gloster continued development work on the Meteor and the production-stop order was overturned in favour of the construction of six (later increased to eight) F9/40 prototypes alongside three E.1/44 prototypes.Shacklady 1962, p. 19. Due to the breakdown in the relationship between Rover and Powerjets and the availability of Rolls Royce's supercharger division, responsibilities for development and production of the W.2B engine were transferred to Rolls-Royce that year.Shacklady 1962, p. 41.
On 5 March 1943, the fifth prototype, serial DG206, powered by two substituted de Havilland Halford H.1 engines owing to problems with the intended W.2 engines, became the first Meteor to become airborne at RAF Cranwell, piloted by Michael Daunt.Mason 1992, p. 339. On the initial flight, an uncontrollable yawing motion was discovered, which led to a redesigned larger rudder; however, no difficulties had been attributed to the groundbreaking turbojet propulsion.Butler and Buttler 2006, p. 15.Shacklady 1962, p. 21. Only two prototypes flew with de Havilland engines because of their low flight endurance.Butler and Buttler 2006, p. 12. Before the first prototype aircraft had even undertaken its first flight, an extended order for 100 production-standard aircraft had been placed by the RAF.Boyne 2002, p. 262.
The first Whittle-engined aircraft, DG205/G, flew on 12 June 1943 (later crashing during takeoff on 27 April 1944) and was followed by DG202/G on 24 July. DG202/G was later used for deck handling tests aboard aircraft carrier .James 1971, p. 249.Butler and Buttler 2006, p. 16. DG203/G made its first flight on 9 November 1943, later becoming a ground instructional airframe. DG204/G, powered by Metrovick F.2 engines, first flew on 13 November 1943; DG204/G was lost in an accident on 4 January 1944, the cause believed to have been an engine compressor failure due to overspeed.Butler and Buttler 2006, pp. 16–17. DG208/G made its début on 20 January 1944, by which time the majority of design problems had been overcome and a production design had been approved. DG209/G was used as an engine testbed by Rolls-Royce, first flying on 18 April 1944. DG207/G was intended to be the basis for the Meteor F.2 with de Havilland engines, but it did not fly until 24 July 1945, at which time the Meteor 3 was in full production and de Havilland's attention was being redirected to the upcoming de Havilland Vampire; consequently the F.2 was cancelled.Goulding 1986, pp. 148–149.James 1971, p. 358.Butler and Buttler 2006, pp. 20–21.Shacklady 1962, pp. 27–28.
Into production
On 12 January 1944, the first Meteor F.1, serial EE210/G, took to the air from Moreton Valence in Gloucestershire. It was essentially identical to the F9/40 prototypes except for the addition of four nose-mounted 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk V cannon and some changes to the canopy to improve all-round visibility.James 1971, pp. 304–305. Due to the F.1's similarity to the prototypes, they were frequently operated in the test program to progress British understanding of jet propulsion, and it took until July 1944 for the aircraft to enter squadron service.Butler and Buttler 2006, pp. 23–24. EE210/G was later sent to the U.S. for evaluation in exchange for a pre-production Bell YP-59A Airacomet, the Meteor being flown first by John Grierson at Muroc Army Airfield on 15 April 1944.Berry, Peter. "The Whittle/Rover W2B and Rolls-Royce W2B/23 Welland Turbo-Jets." enginehistory.org. Retrieved: 30 January 2010.