Sea Meteor Mk.14 in Royal Navy Service

[rickshaw]

Sea Meteor Mk.14 in Royal Navy Service

 

In 1945, desperate to get a jet powered aircraft aboard their carriers, the Lords of the Admiralty undertook trials with a Meteor I was used for deck-handling tests aboard aircraft carrier HMS Pretoria Castle in late 1944. Flown by Captain Eric "Winkle Brown" in March 1945, a hooked Meteor III made the first jet landing and take off from an aircraft carrier on HMS Ocean. The results from these trials were such that they decided to order 200 Meteor IVs, a version which utilised the Derwent V engine. This new engine provided 3,500lb of thrust, a 50% increase on the power offered by the Derwent IV used in later Meteor IIIs. The result was a sprightly improvement in the Meteor III's desultory performance. The first Meteor IV prototype took to the air on 15 August 1945 and the test programme went so smoothly that it entered RN FAA squadron service on 1 June 1946, just in time to sail onboard HMS Illustrious to the Far East to take part in the planned invasion of the Japanese home islands. Able to carry 2,000lbs under each wing, armed with rockets or bombs and its 4 20mm cannon, the Meteor IV proved a considerable success both as a fighter-bomber and a fighter against the Japanese Kamikaze planes deployed against the Allied fleet off Japan.

 

So began the development story of the FAA's Sea Meteor jet fighter. The first Jet Fighter to serve aboard an aircraft carrier and the first to take part in combat over the Japanese Home Islands.

 

After the war, the FAA continued to use Sea Meteors and in 1954, after the experience of the Korean War called for a Fighter, All Weather to help protect the fleet in bad weather and at night. Glosters calling on their experience of building night fighters for the RAF proposed a naval version of the NF.14 which was accepted. As with the other other night fighter versions of the Meteor most of the design work and production was undertaken by Armstrong-Whitworth. However, because of the requirement for folding wings, the wing guns were eliminated. In order to provide some form of armament, a gun pack was installed under the fuselage. In order to accept the ammunition bins, the main fuselage fuel tank was reduced considerably in capacity. Therefore, the Sea Meteor FAW.14 flew with semi-permamently attached 300 gallon wing drop tanks. To further increase its range, a belly tank was developed. However, because it hung so close to the deck, it was impossible to fly back on with it attached so it had to be jettisoned on every sortie. The Admiralty, in a time of economic stringency was forced to curtail Sea Meteor FAW.14 operations. Because the aircraft's range was limited without the tank, the Sea Meteor FAW.14 was quickly replaced by the Sea Venom in the Fighter, All Weather role.

 

 

 

 

 

The Model

 

1/72 Matchbox Meteor NF.14 (and a shockingly bad kit it is too!). Painted with a hairy stick. The decals came from the spares box. The gun pack from an Airfix Canberra B.2/B(I)6 kit and the drop tank from the spares box.