Meteor F.8/FR.9

FEATURES

• Accurate and detailed versions of the F.8 fighter and FR.9 fighter-reconnaissance variants
• Detailed cockpit
• 12 high quality liveries and a Paint Kit (166MB) is available to download
• Authentic sounds
• Retractable reticle gunsight
• Selectable wing fuel tanks or wing-mounted rocket load-outs (rockets non-operational)
• Simulated UV cockpit lighting
• Selectable colours for identification lights
• Simple autopilot function available
• Easy to operate and fly
• External battery cart
• Full animations
• PDF manual that includes a tutorial at Gloucester Staverton Airport on the operation and handling of the aircraft.

LIVERIES

Meteor F.8

• WF714 of No. 500 Sqn Royal Auxiliary Air Force, West Malling, Kent, 1953
• EG-10 MN-S of 350 Smaldeel, Belgian Air Force, 1950s
• FS4440 of the Brazilian Air Force, now resident at the TAM Aviation Museum
• A77870 of the Royal Australian Air Force 'Meteorites' aerobatic team
• A77851 of 77 Sqn Royal Australian Air Force - the famous 'Halestorm' flown by flown by Sgt George Hale during the Korean War and credited with two MiG kills in 1953. A Mk.8 has been restored to replicate the famous fighter and is currently the only Meteor F.8 still flying.
• A7717 of 77 Sqn Royal Australian Air Force, Korea, 1953
• VZ467 Meteor F.8 of 615 Sqn (County of Surrey) Royal Auxiliary Air Force. This particular aircraft and scheme was prepared for a flypast to celebrate Winston Churchill’s birthday, but due to a fuel crisis the flypast never actually took place.
• WK 681 F.8 of No.65 Sqn, RAF Aerobatic Team based at Duxford in December of 1953

Meteor FR.9

• WZ603 of No. 8 Sqn RAF, Sharjah May, Oman, 1960
• WZ956 of No. 208 Sqn RAF, Ta Qali (Malta) (Operation Musketeer), 1956
• FR-36 Meteor of 117 Tajeset, Israeli Defence Force, 1955. It was in this aircraft that Capt. Aharon Yeoli shot down two Egyptian De Havilland Vampires to score the IDF’s first jet kill. How ironic was it that the victims that fell to his guns were also iconic early British jet fighters?
• WL 263 of No. 208 Squadron RAF, Nicosia, Cyprus, 1956

GLOSTER METEOR

Although the Gloster Meteor is regarded as typical of Britain’s Jet Age supremacy, its development actually began in the dark days of 1940 when the Battle of Britain was being fought in the skies over war-torn England and the threat of invasion was imminent. Sir Frank Whittle had begun work on the power plant for Britain’s first jet in 1936 and it was this pioneering work that led to the eventual first flight of a Meteor in 1943. The first operational fighters went to war with 616 Squadron RAF on the 27th July, 1944.

The design, although quite primitive, turned out to be a successful fighter and evolved quickly through the 1940s and 1950s. Although the aircraft saw only limited combat in WWII, nearly 4,000 airframes were built in a variety of specifications, including ground attack and photo-reconnaissance, and served with many countries - Argentina, Egypt and Israel among them. Australia flew the Meteor in Korea with great success, claiming several victories over the more sophisticated MiGs and carrying out many ground attack sorties.

Meteors flew as night-fighters, trainers and ejection-seat test-beds. An F.3 set the world’s first official air speed record for a jet aircraft on 7th November 1945 at 606 miles per hour. The following year an F.4 extended this record  to 616 miles per hour. One Meteor, fitted with Rolls-Royce Trent turbines driving propellers, even became the world’s first turboprop aircraft to take to the air.

During the 1950s jet aircraft development surged forward with much faster and more powerful designs like the F-86 Sabre from the USA, Gloster’s own Javelin, and the amazingly successful Hawker Hunter rendering the Meteor obsolete as a front-line jet fighter. Although quickly eclipsed by the stars of the late 50s and 60s, the Gloster Meteor will always hold its position in the history of aviation as the world’s first operational jet fighter.