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Meteor Sapphire engine testbed


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The Sapphire engine testbed Meteor was the most powerful of all Meteors. I replaced the kit engine nacelles using larger diameter tubing and added new intakes/jetpipes from the spares box with lots of filler! The decals are home made.

 

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Steve

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Thanks, I've got a few more to do yet and then want to get a photo of all of them together. It will need a fair bit of space to fit them all in though.....

 

Steve

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Cheers.

 

Hopefully Christmas will be a time when everybody can put the last horrible 9 months to one side for a while and enjoy what we've still got. It will be very different to a normal Christmas with all the restrictions and lots of people won't be around, for various reasons, but we just need to cope with it and look forward to 2021 being better - hopefully!

 

Whatever you're doing at Christmas I hope you enjoy it and stay safe.

 

Steve

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Thanks, I've done most of the Meteors that I wanted to do leaving the W2/700, Beryl, Avon, Nene testbeds then the radar nose and Griffiths wing F3s. I will then have 50 Meteors, which I think is probably enough.....

 

Steve

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50 Meteors?  Do you expect it'll be enough for you?  This work is a real feast for the eyes, and highly educational.  I'm frankly surprised at the use of a Meteor to test such outsize engines.  Were there no spare Lincolns available at the time?

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Thanks, there certainly are more Meteors that I could easily do but I've got so many other types I want to build that I've drawn the line at 50 - I wouldn't want to get obsessed with Meteors :wink:

 

Using Lincolns to test jet engines was fine up to a certain point but the airframe wasn't designed/stressed for the higher thrust/speed from the later engines, so the engine couldn't be tested to its limits. The Sapphire Meteor could outclimb anything else then flying but the Meteor airframe was pretty much at its limits so manoeuvring had to be done with care. The normal straight wing spars were replaced on many of the testbed Meteors with spars that went above and below the engine and were known as banjo spars due to their shape.

 

Steve

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Thanks both.

 

It looked perfect after the primer coat but showed up lots of problem areas when the silver went on. Luckily they were soon sorted and everything hidden under a second coat!

 

Steve

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