Meteor Boys: True Tales from the Operator's of Britain's First Jet Fighter - From 1944 to Date (The Jet Age Series) - Hardcover

Bond, Steve

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1910690260 ISBN 13: 9781910690260

Verlag: Grub Street Publishing, 2016

Inhaltsangabe

Grub Street is proud to present Meteor Boys, the latest title in its ever-popular Boys series. As Britain’s first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor has had a remarkably varied and lengthy life. But whilst many books have focused on its development and service history, the time has come to hear the personal experiences of its air and ground crews. By interviewing over thirty veterans, author and Meteor veteran Steve Bond has written an incredibly detailed insight into this iconic aircraft, which is supported by anecdotes and accounts from those who knew it best. One example is Alan McDonald who described the Meteor as ‘a bit unforgiving if you got it wrong, as many pilots found out to their cost, especially on one engine, but I must admit I got to like it very much – it was a great adrenaline rush.’ Alongside these entertaining anecdotes are details of the Meteor’s origins and developments. Starting with the first deliveries in 1944 working through to the present day, Steve Bond documents the diverse role which the Meteor has had. From use in operations against the V1, photo-reconnaissance missions, as a training machine and later a display aircraft – particular attention is given to its major service period of the 1950s through to the early 1960s. The book will also feature photographs never seen before in print. This detailed history of this iconic and much loved jet fighter will appeal to all aviation fans.

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A life-long aviation professional and historian, Dr Steve Bond has spent over 40 years working in the industry. He served in the Royal Air Force for 22 years as an aircraft propulsion technician, with tours on many different aircraft, and was part of the Eurofighter Typhoon project team in the MoD. Steve then spent 13 years with City University London as a senior lecturer and course director. He developed and ran the world’s  first MSc Air Safety Management programme for aviation professionals and continues to lecture on the subject. He has a PhD in Air Safety Management, is a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is also a Freeman of the Honourable Company of Air Pilots and author of many magazine articles and books.

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Meteor Boys

True Tales From the Operators of Britain's First Jet Fighter – From 1944 to Date

By Steve Bond

Grub Street

Copyright © 2016 Steve Bond
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-910690-26-0

Contents

Preface, 
Introduction and Acknowledgements, 
Chapter One The Tigers – 74 Squadron, 
Chapter Two Day Fighter Zenith, 
Chapter Three Weekend Flyers – The Royal Auxiliary Air Force, 
Chapter Four 'We Stalk by Night' – Nocturnal Meteors, 
Chapter Five Low and Fast – Fighter Reconnaissance, 
Chapter Six 'Alone Above All' – Photo Reconnaissance, 
Chapter Seven Challenging Times – Pilot Training in the 1950s, 
Chapter Eight Second Wind – Aircrew Training into the 1960s, 
Chapter Nine Targets and Taxis, 
Chapter Ten Air Displays and Earning Their Keep, 
Appendix Royal Air Force and Royal Navy Operating Units, 
Abbreviations, 
Select Bibliography, 

CHAPTER 1

THE TIGERS – 74 SQUADRON

THE BOYS

Sqn Ldr Alan Colman

National Service, joined in 1949. Trained on Meteors at 205 AFS, first tour on 74 Sqn, CFS, 211 FTS instructor, Ferry Training Unit, subsequently 216 and 51 Sqns Comet. Left the air force in 1976 to fly Comets for Dan Air.

Flt Lt Sir Paul Holden

Enlisted in 1942, trained in the US, 287 Sqn Hurricane, Spitfire and Tempest, 74 Sqn Meteor, demobbed 1946, later joined RAFVR and flew Harvard, Spitfire, Vampire, Chipmunk and Tiger Moth.

Flt Lt Derek Morter

Joined in 1948 as a wireless fitter, pilot's course 1949. Trained on Meteors at 205 AFS, first tour on 74 Sqn, instrument rating examiner, 79 and 541 Sqns Meteor, OC Station Flt Oldenburg/Ahlhorn, 229 OCU Chivenor, 14 and 20 Sqns Hunter, HQ MEAF, retired 1968.

Gp Capt Derek Rake

41 Sqn Spitfire 1945, 20 Sqn Spitfire and Tempest 1946, 74 Sqn Meteor 1946, CFS, followed by tours on Hunter, Lightning, OC 192 Sqn (later 51 Sqn) Comet/ Canberra 1958-1960, as OC Wyton flew 58 Sqn Canberras and 543 Sqn Victors, retired 1976.

EARLY DAYS

Following the Meteor's successful introduction to service with 616 Sqn, it is somewhat curious that the unit was disbanded by renumbering as 263 Sqn in August 1945. Nonetheless the Meteor force had started to grow and Colerne near Bath in Wiltshire was chosen to be the RAF's first major Meteor station. By late 1945, it was home to 74 and 504 Sqns (which was quickly renumbered 245 Sqn) and for a brief period, 1335 Conversion Unit which soon moved out to the former USAAF station at Molesworth in Huntingdonshire. All three units were equipped with the F.3.

Of these new units, arguably the most famous was 74 Sqn, which had converted to Meteors just as the European war was ending and it would become the squadron to fly the Meteor in its original day fighter role longer than anyone else, just over 11 years in fact. Their motto is 'I fear no man' but they were – and indeed still are – better known simply as the Tigers from the animal's head on their original badge dating back to World War One.

For pilots posted to fly Meteors in those early years a major challenge was the fact that there was as yet no two-seater in which to give them instruction. Having just completed a tour flying Spitfires and Tempests with 287 Sqn, Paul Holden was posted to Colerne where, in December 1945 he had four sessions in a Link Trainer to prepare him for the Meteor – and for 74 Sqn.

"I started on the Meteor at 1335 Conversion Unit at Molesworth in February 1946. The conversion course was less than a week. It consisted of one hour in an Oxford doing simulated wheeler landings and asymmetric flying, some lectures on jet-engine handling, and then it was four flights in a Meteor. Two were sort of air experience flights, one was a high altitude flight and one low level exercise with a single-engine approach. We didn't do any circuits and bumps or anything. One of my fellow pilots on the conversion course got carried away by the thrill of flying at low level. He consumed far too much fuel and arrived back at the airfield with his cockpit aglow with red (low fuel warning) lights! He made a quick and dirty dart at the first runway he came to and was in such a hurry to get it down that he flew right into the ground without levelling off first, thereby collapsing the nose wheel and skidding down the runway on his nose. Fortunately he was unhurt, but it didn't do the aircraft any good at all. I can't remember what happened to him after that but, after my three exciting Meteor flights at Molesworth, I reported to my new squadron at Colerne as a qualified jet pilot – I don't think! I really learned how to fly it after that.

"We didn't do any gunnery in my time; there was some problem with that. We did a lot of demonstration flights, squadron formations over air shows and that sort of thing and for some reason unknown to me, we specialised in landing, with 46 feet wingspan aeroplanes, in vics of three on a 150 feet wide runway! It was quite a tight exercise, but we took it in our stride. We did a lot of aerobatics, a lot of formation flying and the occasional low level sortie. I remember one flying over North Devon (I was a very keen amateur cine photographer) and I had my clockwork-driven 9.5-mm black and white movie camera taped to the gunsight. I filmed flying at low level along the railway line towards Barnstaple flat out at about 200 feet.

"The Meteor was fantastic. All my flying until then had been on single-engine aeroplanes sitting behind a ruddy great engine when you couldn't see out of the front, until you got your tail up. Suddenly, you get into a Meteor and you drive it along looking out the front and you can see where you're going. You get on the runway, open up the taps, let the brakes go and it pushed you in the back and roared off. First time off, I was at about 2,000 feet doing 250 knots and halfway into the next county before I got my breath back and the wheels up! It was tremendous, a wonderful aeroplane. "Funnily enough, after hundreds of hours flying single-engine aircraft, I'd never had any engine failure at all, never a cough. The only engine failure I ever had was in a Meteor, which was surprising because basically jet engines are more reliable than piston engines. It was a problem with the barostat; when you're up at high level, it controls the amount of fuel going into the engine so that it uses a lot less fuel at high level than at low level. Apparently the barostat stuck, so that when I came down I got a flame-out in the starboard engine and couldn't light it again. I'd been at about 30,000 feet and was over 8/8ths cloud, so I made a 'PAN' call (declaring a problem) on the distress frequency and asked for a homing to base, which they gave me. The next thing that happened was that all the power failed, because the only generator was on the starboard engine. Unknown to anybody the battery was no good. When the engine was running you didn't need it and when the engine failed, shortly afterwards, so did the battery. All the electrics went out, R/T went off, no contact, no lights, no anything. After the one 'PAN' they tried to give me further calls and there was no reply, so there was a certain amount of panic and concern on the ground obviously. Everybody on both squadrons was alerted to the fact that there was a major problem.

"Fortunately, on the way home following the original homing bearing, there was a hole in the cloud. I managed to get down underneath it and map-read my way...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Grub Street Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1910690260
• ISBN 13: 9781910690260
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar