Gloster Meteor
The Meatbox
“The only Allied jet to fight in the Second World War.”
Gloster · military
The Meteor was Britain's first jet fighter and the only Allied jet to see combat in the war, chasing V-1 flying bombs over Kent in the summer of 1944. It went on to set world speed records, serve 20 air forces and fight in Korea with the Australians. Nearly 4,000 were built. A couple fly in the UK, and one, Martin-Baker's WL419, is still used to test ejection seats, firing them out of the back seat at speed.
In August 1944 a Meteor pilot whose guns had jammed flew alongside a V-1 flying bomb and tipped it over with his wingtip, the first kill ever scored by a jet aircraft.
Two fat engine nacelles mounted in the middle of a straight wing, well out from the fuselage, and a tailplane set high on the fin. No other jet carries its engines like this.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Meatbox from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook.
