Meteor in the mountains

well its a bit of one anyways.. a land survey team put me onto this a while ago through my aviation archaeology website (bhaa). i popped up there last winter in -5 temp and it was ruddy hard to find becouse from a distance of about 20 feet it looked like a rock.. my guess is that it was used as a storage thing for a local farmer…

and no im not saying which mountains, other than they are not far from me in Oswestry. bet that drives you mad lol.

i had been to Cosford a while before that and i think its an early Meteor nose from what i could tell..

inside the nosecone was writtain the numbers “526” or “975” depending which way up you read it. the middle digit aint to clear but looks more like a 2than a 7…. the 6 looks like a 6 more than it does a 9 if you follow?. so i would say 526 looks better.

anybody any idea`s?????

Hi pistonrob,

I have sent you a PM.

I’ll do it publically John as I very much doubt there’s any need for you to lose sleep over it.

This “sighting” was earlier than the others I mentioned. I was a CCF cadet at the time so that puts it around 1968-1970ish.

My unit made several visits to No. 8 A.E.F. at RAF Shawbury for Chippie flying, etc. On at least one of the visits, we were taken to the M.U. side of the airfield for a look at derelict Hastings, Shackletons and Beverlies awaiting the end. It was from the coach that I first saw the section in a farmer’s front yard, just off what was still a public highway at that point (so it must have been readily visible to a great many people).

I recall going back with a pal some years later to have another look at the scrap area. We went down the same road but parked on a yellow line to get a good view. Two RAF bobbies in a mini van chased us off – I felt like protesting that we were on a public road but my mate was driving and he started the car up when they “swooped” on us. I cannot recall seeing the section on that occasion so it had probably already been taken away for scrap.

Given its prominent position, I’m sure we would have heard more about it if it had survived much longer.

If I had to chose, I’d go for York rather than Stirling as the fuselage cross section seemed more square than rectangular.

To put this in perspective, the MU still had a few Ansons in inside storage with inhibited engines etc, presumably with the intention of selling them on as goers. The ones with no apparent future were out in the long grass.

It’s a long time ago!

And apologies for highjacking your thread pistonrob!

your welcome, a fascinating read as its not far from me. oh for a time machine lol..

didnt Cardington have a clear out a few years back and found a load of tyres from beaufighters, all unused.. makes you wonder whats hidden away in sheds sometimes

I’ll do it publically John as I very much doubt there’s any need for you to lose sleep over it.

This “sighting” was earlier than the others I mentioned. I was a CCF cadet at the time so that puts it around 1968-1970ish.

My unit made several visits to No. 8 A.E.F. at RAF Shawbury for Chippie flying, etc. On at least one of the visits, we were taken to the M.U. side of the airfield for a look at derelict Hastings, Shackletons and Beverlies awaiting the end. It was from the coach that I first saw the section in a farmer’s front yard, just off what was still a public highway at that point (so it must have been readily visible to a great many people).

I recall going back with a pal some years later to have another look at the scrap area. We went down the same road but parked on a yellow line to get a good view. Two RAF bobbies in a mini van chased us off – I felt like protesting that we were on a public road but my mate was driving and he started the car up when they “swooped” on us. I cannot recall seeing the section on that occasion so it had probably already been taken away for scrap.

Given its prominent position, I’m sure we would have heard more about it if it had survived much longer.

If I had to chose, I’d go for York rather than Stirling as the fuselage cross section seemed more square than rectangular.

To put this in perspective, the MU still had a few Ansons in inside storage with inhibited engines etc, presumably with the intention of selling them on as goers. The ones with no apparent future were out in the long grass.

It’s a long time ago!

And apologies for highjacking your thread pistonrob!

Blimey alan, you can’t just drop a statement like that in:diablo:

Can you PM me with any details you might have please/

cheers

John

there used to be fences made of propellors, gaps in hedges filled with wellington geodetics and bridges made out of main spars kicking around all over the place believe it or not. even a Hamilcar crew ladder was used by a farmer to get into his hay loft

ive even got a seat cushion from a Proctor that crashed during the war. the farmer picked it up after the crash and used it on his tractors for 40 years and then in the flour mill before he kindly donated it to me.

as for the location of the nose cone!!!.. no im not going to tell im afraid, sorry,as a few of you have contacted me reference it.

if i wanted to have the nosecone i could have,as the land owner said so. am i daft in thinking that its kind of the place i would like to leave it??.. its healthy fot the imagination to have this kind of stuff around i think. the chance of discovery is still out there and the legend will live on lol.

I recall seeing quite an assortment of airframe parts in use as animal shelters on farms around Shawbury, back in the 1970/80s, including what looked like Javelin nose cones and bits of Argosy.

A farm adjacent to the aerodrome had a piece of rear fuselage which might have been York or Stirling judging by its rectangular section.

I wonder if any of it survives?

Blimey alan, you can’t just drop a statement like that in:diablo:

Can you PM me with any details you might have please/

cheers

John

Not often one can say that!
Nice pictuure, you would think that the Radio gear would give the camera a wave!

Pagey be righty!
http://www.airliners.net/photo/UK—Air/Gloster-Meteor-U15/1600253/M/
So maybe my thoery’s not all that far off…

I think the earlier U.15s (F.4) didn’t have the longer pointy nose cone.

Target drone?

The drones (U15’s and U16’s) all had pointed nose cones as far as I know.

The originals were removed or modified to suit the radio control gear.

Anon.

is it just me, or does it look to be wearing the remains of a target drone colour scheme? If that’s the case it might help narrow down which aircraft it’s off…

I recall seeing quite an assortment of airframe parts in use as animal shelters on farms around Shawbury, back in the 1970/80s, including what looked like Javelin nose cones and bits of Argosy.

A farm adjacent to the aerodrome had a piece of rear fuselage which might have been York or Stirling judging by its rectangular section.

I wonder if any of it survives?

there used to be the forward section of an Argosy within the Nesscliffe training ground, it was scrapped in the 1980`s unfotunately

My old boss took us to a crash site on a remote moor that was of a meatbox, it’s remains were lying in a tight gully, wasn’t a lot to see, we were in a Puma hovering over it. He said it went in with the pilot and despite extensive searches they never found it, he spotted it about 5 months later on a low flying exercise in a JP and was the first to find it… they recovered the poor soul after that.

Great find pistonrob. Good to know pieces like this are still around, and that not everything has been recovered or scrapped!

I recall seeing quite an assortment of airframe parts in use as animal shelters on farms around Shawbury, back in the 1970/80s, including what looked like Javelin nose cones and bits of Argosy.

A farm adjacent to the aerodrome had a piece of rear fuselage which might have been York or Stirling judging by its rectangular section.

I wonder if any of it survives?

Nose cone

Definitely from a single-seat fighter Meteor but could be anything up to Mk.8 as I’m pretty sure this part went unchanged up to that Mk. number.

It’s almost certainly from a scrapper (Shawbury?) as this would have been the first bit to hit the ground if it was a crasher. The nose sub-assembly includes the nose u/c door (as this one does) so has been removed properly.

I know a project looking for one of these;)

Anon.