This airplane now resides at the RAF Museum at RAF Cosford. As precursors of the Gloster Meteor, the first jet fighter to see service with the Royal Air Force, the F9/40 prototypes manufactured by the Gloster Aircraft Company pioneered the application of jet propulsion to combat aircraft design in the United Kingdom. Following his work on Britain's first jet research aircraft, the E28/39, Gloster Chief Designer, George Carter, submitted a design for a fighter aircraft powered by two jets to the Air Ministry in August 1940. Subsequently, a contract for the production of twelve F9/40s was placed on 7 February 1941, although only eight were actually built. This aircraft was the first F9/40 manufactured. However, due to engine problems with the early prototypes the fifth prototype became the first to fly on 5 March 1943. Employed in essential early airframe and engine development trials, the F9/40 fleet laid the groundwork for the introduction into RAF service of the Gloster Meteor fighter and represented a milestone in the use of jet engines by the British aircraft industry. Anyone know a bit more about these prototypes. Hopefully going to get to see it next week.
hey Mahross, good find. That's interesting that it flew in 1943, I wonder why it wasn't brought to existence more so due to the Me-269s devistation against the British?
but was not the Meteor's range rather limited... ? Of course so was the single seat Me 262 as well, and the a/c were based at strategic points usally close to Berlin. I would of been interesting to pit the two against one another ~E
Out of curiousity... how limited were the ranges of some of these early jet fighters? About how long could they stay airborne without refueling? From a couple quick website checks, it sounds like the operational range was about 650 miles... but I'm curious as to how much time a mission would generally take...
Operational Ranges: Gloster Meteor: 1000 miles Messerschmitt Me-262 ('Schwalbe'): 650 miles Heinkel He-162 ('Volksjager'/'Salamander'): 434 miles Messerschmitt 163 ('Komet'): less than 62 miles. [EDIT - Strictly speaking the Komet wasn't a jet fighter, but a rocket-driven point interceptor, but there you go] For comparison, the P-51D, the fighter famous for its endurance had an operational range of 1300 miles, and an absolute range of a little over 2,000 miles. [ 01. October 2003, 03:35 PM: Message edited by: Greenjacket ]
for the P-51 it helps to have the underwing drop tanks....... I really don't think you can count the Komet or the silly Salamander since they were failure's. As I mentioned becuase of limted endurance the Me 262's were given just an area to defend but bases were important so the three gruppen could come together enmasse for an attack and then from there they were open to getting nailed on the approaches to their perspective airfields
I was on holiday when this thread appeared. The Meteor ; my impression is that, by the time the aircraft was in any way 'sorted', the war had moved too far into Europe for the aircraft to be of significant use. See : - http://www.meteorflight.com/at_war.htm For the first 'victory'....
