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Meteor night fighters seats


Junchan

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I wonder why the Meteor night fighters did not have ejection seats. 
It makes sense that the NF.11 did not have ejection seats because the NF.11 was based on the T.7 air frame. 

Was there any reason why the ejection seats were not installed on the NF.14? 
Perhaps, to save the allup weight or to maintain the CG. 

Jun in Tokyo 
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Thank you Steve,

I also think that AW avoided extra design work since they had not had any experience of developing jet fighters.

Jun in Tokyo

Edited by Junchan
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11 hours ago, NAVY870 said:

Too much redesign work to install the seats also very likely make it too nose heavy 

and screw up the C of G

 

Although the Meteor night fighters have a long fuselage in which to place the ballast and restore the CofG, wouldn't need a huge amount of mass with such a long moment, but then maybe the structure in the rear might not take it :hmmm:

 

5 minutes ago, The Wooksta! said:

Lack of cash.  They'd done the redesign work for the canopy but then the Treasury wouldn't pony up the extra few quid for the bang seats themselves.

 

I reckon this was the likely reason, Treasury parsimony.  I wonder how many crews were lost as a result?

 

 

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Going back thirty odd years I recall reading something in a book about the Meteor referring to Swedish interest in a night fighter variant with ejector seats.

Has anybody got the Brian Philpott book, I suspect that may be the one?

I got it from Kent library service, but it is no longer listed there.

There was a small diagram illustrating an extension to the forward fuselage giving enough space to install two Martin Baker (or even SAAB?) seats.

This was a project that never went any further as far as I recall.

Cost, handling, performance, stability are all matters that could have been relevant.

All I know is that somewhere in the furthest corners of the loft is a box of 'dead projects' and one of those was a Matchbox 1/72 attempt at this 'what-if' Swede that I abandoned.

Can anyone else recall seeing references to the Swedish interest? 

John

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Brilliant!

Thank you for finding that, I think it was my inability to plunge-mould a decent canopy that stopped my model from being completed.

Now how come I can remember something like that and yet I forgot why I went to the village shop this morning?

 

John

 

 

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Excellent!!

Actually they studied various cockpit arrangements including those with the ejection seats.

Many thanks for sharing.

Jun in Tokyo

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  • 1 month later...
On 2017-02-23 at 2:45 PM, sanguin said:

Going back thirty odd years I recall reading something in a book about the Meteor referring to Swedish interest in a night fighter variant with ejector seats.

Has anybody got the Brian Philpott book, I suspect that may be the one?

I got it from Kent library service, but it is no longer listed there.

There was a small diagram illustrating an extension to the forward fuselage giving enough space to install two Martin Baker (or even SAAB?) seats.

This was a project that never went any further as far as I recall.

Cost, handling, performance, stability are all matters that could have been relevant.

All I know is that somewhere in the furthest corners of the loft is a box of 'dead projects' and one of those was a Matchbox 1/72 attempt at this 'what-if' Swede that I abandoned.

Can anyone else recall seeing references to the Swedish interest? 

John

I can't recall any Swedish interest in the Meteor night fighter. But eventually Sweden bought the Venom NF.3 - without ejector seats. They were delivered with a lead ballast in the nose. After delivery the ballast was replaced with the radar sets removed from the J 30 Mosquitoes (NF.30) that the Venoms were replacing.

Edited by Sten Ekedahl
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19 hours ago, Sten Ekedahl said:

I can't recall any Swedish interest in the Meteor night fighter. But eventually Sweden bought the Venom NF.3 - without ejector seats. They were delivered with a lead ballast in the nose. After delivery the ballast was replaced with the radar sets removed from the J 30 Mosquitoes (NF.30) that the Venoms were replacing.

 

Sten,

 

You make an excellent point, both the night fighter Meteor and Venom used essentially late war vintage radars and the same armament e.g. 4x 20mm Hispano as the Mosquito they replaced.

 

The only capability enhancement they conferred was an ability to reach their target quicker and the ability to intercept slightly faster targets than the Mosquito could. They were thirsty beasts too and couldn't spend as long on station as the Mosquito so in some ways were a retrograde step.

 

That said, they were worthy stop-gaps when needed.

Edited by Wez
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