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Gloster Meteor F-4

World Speed Record Setter 7 November 1945

by Colin Whitehouse

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At the end of WWII the Germans were left holding the world air speed record, set by an Me209  in 1939 at 469mph. Naturally the victorious allies could not let this remain, so in Britain Frank McKenna of Gloster Aircraft approached the MAP for Government support in taking the record back for Britain. The support was forthcoming and 2 Meteor Mk3's were allocated, EE454 and EE455. The aircraft were fitted with Derwent 5 engines and longer nacelles which were being planned for the new Mk4. Otherwise the planes were only slightly modified by having Cannons and radios removed (inc the large upper aerial) and an extra fuel tank added. Both had panel lines sealed and smoothed before being given a "High Speed Gloss finish". EE454 was finished in Standard day fighter scheme and EE455 in yellow to assist in filming. On the 7th November Gp Cpt Hugh Wilson set a new record of 606.38 flying EE454 to claim the trophy for Britain. Interestingly a year later the process was repeated when another Meteor raised the record to 614mph. This latter record involved other changes to the planes including a solid canopy. The latter Meteor now lives on in Tangmere museum in the UK but I can find no record of the fate of EE454.

Click on images below to see larger images

I based the model on Classic Airframes Meteor 4 but since it was actually a Mk3 with Mk4 engines I needed some Mk3 long span outer wings. I sourced these from a Tamya Mk3 and the rest of the kit from Classic Airframes. To save time I would have used the Tamiya kit of course but it looked harder to graft the CA engines onto the Tamiya wing than just swap the outer wing panels which is what I did. In terms of building the kit I found the nose weight recommended by CA to not enough and so ended up filling the nose with lead as well. I also found the nose leg support quite fragile and so I finally glued the gear leg to the extra lead inside the nose. A long time was spent filling all the panel lines to replicate the smooth aircraft! Paints were by Xtracolour.

An interesting model for this almost forgotten event now 50 years ago. Next year is the 30th anniversary of the current world record being set and my Blackbird is almost done!

For reference I used "Gloster Meteor'' by Chaz Bowyer (1985) and

"The Gloster Meteor" by Edward Shacklady (1962)

Colin

Photos and text © by Colin W