Meteor T7 (WS103, VL-709)

Pete, hate to burst your bubble but the wing section displayed under EE531 at Coventry is not a folding wing section! Its the partially exposed outer wing section from EE223, recovered from Cranfield’s fabled Aeronautical section (along with other goodies) back in the early days of MAM. it was used as an aid to demonstrate the internal structure of typical wing construction.
I also worked on EE531 in its days before being put into the display hangar and never saw any evidence of modifications to facilitate a folding wing mechanism being installed.

I have now sat down rather than bow to your superior knowledge….. 😮 😮 😀

I think it’s all the talk about a certain other airframe with folding bits got me confused 🙁

http://www.airlinehobby.com/listings/details/index.cfm?itemnum=579977516

WS103 Pictured at Odiham in Sep 1966

Underneath the Meteor at Coventry there are the folding wing sections – I thought it was a bit more sketchy as to which airframe they were attached to. Early trials like this seem to lack the comprehensive documentation etc that we get today.

Pete, hate to burst your bubble but the wing section displayed under EE531 at Coventry is not a folding wing section! Its the partially exposed outer wing section from EE223, recovered from Cranfield’s fabled Aeronautical section (along with other goodies) back in the early days of MAM. it was used as an aid to demonstrate the internal structure of typical wing construction.

I also worked on EE531 in its days before being put into the display hangar and never saw any evidence of modifications to facilitate a folding wing mechanism being installed.

Underneath the Meteor at Coventry there are the folding wing sections – I thought it was a bit more sketchy as to which airframe they were attached to. Early trials like this seem to lack the comprehensive documentation etc that we get today.

In his autobio ‘Hippocrates RN’, Herbert Ellis (who was a naval doctor/pilot) describes some unnofficial deck landing training for Wing Cmdr Pat Ruffel Smith RAF (also based at Farnborough) in Meteor T7 WA619 ?,here is a pic of this pair doing ‘touch and goes’ on HMS Ark Royal.
R S may have been the oldest pilot (44) to do a deck landing
for the first time,when at a later date he flew Farnborough’s sea hawk on a carrier trial.

I didn’t think any Meteors had folding wings, others here would know more though.

Navalized Meteor

Many sources state that Meteor F.4 EE531 (at Midland A. M.) was used for folding-wing trials. But in all the times I helped dismantle/reassemble her (before she, finally, went on permanent display) I never saw any evidence of structural alteration. Never seen any photos either.

Roger Smith.

meteors

yep,
i got the book FAA 1946-2000 air-britain
there must be 100 ish in service or more in the 50s

The Fleet Air Arm did indeed use Meteor T.7s, and is often not realised that they had them in service earlier than the RAF!
Another preserved T.7 is VZ638 at Gatwick which is painted in FAA colours.
They were used for jet conversion training as there weren’t any training versions of their front-line jet aircraft, communications, and station flights before serving in the Fleet support role. They wern’t used on carriers.
There was also a navalised Meteor, with tailhook, which saw limited use during jet carrier trials, and the TT.20 target tug.

Just noticed the last question, the flat round nose panel is where the Harley light was fitted, it was powerful light used in the Fleet Requirements Unit role for working with naval shipping. I believe the nose section was usually dayglo orange.