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'Navalised' Meteor


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  • 3 weeks later...

Right I need to get back to this, but life has just got in the way lately.

I'm going to do it as a Sea Meteor if I can fing sufficient refs. I've trawled the web and come up with one pic of an HSS, or NMF Meteor taking the wire.

From what Johnathan said I assume it was painted in FAA colours at some point? Does anybody have pics of this scheme, and some decent shots of the areestor hook arrangement?

Any info gratefully received.

rich :frantic:

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Right I need to get back to this, but life has just got in the way lately.

I'm going to do it as a Sea Meteor if I can fing sufficient refs. I've trawled the web and come up with one pic of an HSS, or NMF Meteor taking the wire.

From what Johnathan said I assume it was painted in FAA colours at some point? Does anybody have pics of this scheme, and some decent shots of the areestor hook arrangement?

Any info gratefully received.

rich :frantic:

Sorry Rich, should have replied to your PM earlier, anyway here's a couple of scans of artwork showing EE337 "051/FD" from 778 NAS at RNAS Ford. Artwork is by David Howley (Warpaint 22) and R Caruana (Modellers Datafile 8). They don't really show the arrestor hook arrangement, though it seems fairly "primitive" from the artwork. I think the hook was taken from a Sea Mossie or Sea Hornet?

Note: Its not actually referred to as a "Sea Meteor" in either article. Just a Meteor F.Mk.3 "Navalised"..........

meteorprofiles.jpg

bmeteorprofile.jpg

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Sea Meteor eh? I thought you weren't much of a fan of FAA :whistle::lol:

She's looking grand buddy, can't say I've seen a Meteor built up in FAA colours before so looking forward to it :)

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Me, did I say that. Must have been on the radio :innocent: .

Cheers Shaun. I hope to get it done for Telford, but I have the Canberra to do as well :frantic: .

rich :bristow:

Wierd stuff, I'm doing a Canberra and have got a Meteor to do!

I'll be lucky to finish either at the moment...what's new eh?

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hi do not forget to leave the main gear doors and retraction jacks and folding mechanism for the doors off due to the first deck landing it buckled its gear doors my father made a model of this and spent many years on display at the mossie museum in london colney

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This is the only photo I can find. Is this likely to be very early on in the trials, before EDSG/Sky? And is it NMF or HSS?

meteor_sea.jpg

From: http://www.unrealaircraft.com/fowler/index.php

rich

Almost certainly HSS, the EDSG/Sky finish seems to relate to it being based at RNAS Ford a few years later. I'm thinking that she may have been retired from her deck landing duties by that stage?

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This is the only picture I was able to find of it in FAA colours and is the one I used for my build.

As I undertand the situation, it originally belonged to Farnborough and did the carrier trials onboard HMS IMPLACABLE in 1947 in silver, but then moved to 778 Sqn at FORD, basically as a jet trials hack, where it remained until 1959 and was repainted as seen below. Eric Brown describes it as a Mk 3 with uprated Mk 4 (Derwent V) engines and a hook. When I built mine I removed the oil cooler bumps on the cowling, which would normally go with the more powerful engines (along with longer jetpipes), but are missing on the photos.

The hook was much more difficult and I interpreted from several photos including the two posted here, plus another in Thetford's "British Naval Aircraft since 1912", that it was a single and very simple hooked arm.

met3b.jpg

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Thanks gengriz. I have seen your build and very nice it looks too.

Do you still have the other pics, or are the two here it?

rich

My scanner is temporarily on strike, but here are photos of the photos - first from Thetford, the second from Brown's "Wings on my Sleeve":

P9190586.jpg

P9190585.jpg

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I started off with an A-Frame, but then looking at the photo above, I decided that it looked more like a single arm - unless the photographer managed to get it exactly perpendicular in the photo, which is possible, but I decided unlikely. I could be entirely wrong and I did ask around on several forums whether anyone knew, but got no replies.

I believe that there used to be a 1/48 set of decals for the aircraft (maybe even a conversion). I don't know who made them, but I do remember seeing one built at the Avon IPMS show about 4-5 years ago (have checked and I didnt take any photos), which was the original inspiration for my build. I guess that the decal instructions may have more detail on the hook?

FredT

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I've been planning to do a model of this for some time now after seeing some photos in the Aerofax book 'Gloster Meteor' written by Phil Butler and Tony Buttler. There's a lengthy few paragraphs starting on page 27 running through page 28 and a bit on page 29. There are two very clear photos of EE387 on page 27, a side profile with hook up and a 3/4 rear view with the hook down. It very clearly shows an 'A' frame hook as does the photo on page 28 of EE337 about to land on an aircraft carrier (it's a few feet off the deck and about to catch the wire). In the text it says that the two Meteors used Derwent 5's, a de Havilland Hornet 'A' frame arrester hook and strengthened u/c. The outer main u/c doors were not fitted for the tests and they were all silver.

Sorry but I can't scan the photos though.

Edited by kitnut617
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Hiya kitnut. Thanks for the info and it's a shame, but could you even just take a couple of pics please. Bill said he remembered it being of a Hornet, so that is really useful.

Looks like the plan is a goer, so the engines will go in today and I'll button the nacelles up. Next stage paint.

rich

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