Having been part of the Victor team at Elvington for a good few years, I have now embarked on a restoration project of my own for the Yorkshire Air Museum, Meteor NF(T).14 WS788.
The aircraft was built at Baginton, Coventry, in February 1954. In July 1954, it was issued to 152 Squadron at Wattisham. It served with the No.2 Air Navigation School at Thorney Island and later at No.1 School at Stradishall, where it was damaged in an accident. In January 1966, it was allocated for ground instructional use.
In September 1969, WS788 was moved to Patrington Radar Station on Spurn Head, East Yorkshire, as a static display aircraft. When Patrington closed, it was moved to Leeming, North Yorkshire, to be the Station Gate Guard. It was brought to Elvington in 1991 and has been displayed there in 152 Squadron colours ever since.
24 years after her arrival at YAM, 788 is well overdue some TLC. Her outer wings were removed to get her indoors and some work was done on her over summer by volunteers and French engineering students, but this work has now trickled to a halt and the aircraft moved to the far corner of the museum site. She now sits in a corner, looking sad, but at least she has her surprisingly complete cockpit covered over and protected from the elements.
I have been keen to adopt this aircraft for a while now, and having left the Victor for the foreseeable future, I have the opportunity to really get to grips with this classic jet. OK, I know it doesn’t have the aesthetic appeal of most of the 50’s/60’s classics, in fact many say it’s downright ugly, but I think it has a certain appeal and certainly deserves to be restored. I admit it, I love the NF Meteors. There, I’ve said it now.
So, what’s the plan? I hear you say. Rub back the old paint, which in places is that thick I think it was applied with a yardbrush! Sort any corrosion found, then apply a shiny new colour scheme. In addition, I’m looking into the possibility of getting some of the electrical systems working for the first time since the late 60’s. If I can get the external and cockpit lights working I’ll be a happy bunny.
I was at the museum on Friday to meet with our aircraft manager and get the final ‘green light’ to carry on with my plan. Then I trekked over to the jet (which at the far side of the site is too far from the NAAFI for my liking!) to give it a look over and see just what I had let myself in for. As you can see from the above shot it’s not all that encouraging at first glance! But there is certainly potential. She’s far from a lost cause
The undersides of the wings around the airbrakes area are the worst bits of the jet so far, a legacy of years of East Coast weather I suspect
peering into the aircraft’s inner structure was encouraging though. A bit of flaky paint and lots of muck, but nothing terrible and certainly little in the way of corrosion.
To try and discourage water collecting, and to encourage air to circulate and try to dry her out a bit, I removed the 2 rear lower wing fillet panels. After the tide went out I was pleasantly surprised by the health of the structure within
I decided while I was at it to undo the 2 bolts holding the flaps up and lower them, for the same reason. They are a tad stiff after so many years, but they deployed fine.
Sunday was to be the first working day proper. I decided that, bearing in mind I want to get power on the jet eventually, I had best take a look at what if anything remained in the battery bay for starters! While I was doing this Andy was attempting to remove the fasteners holding the wing leading edge on. Most of these are incorrect, and the leading edges need to come off anyway, so I thought he may as well crack on. After a lot of effort and cursing I got the battery bay door to come off, and it emerged blinking into the daylight for the first time in decades I suspect
The bay itself looked better than I anticipated too, with the battery leads in place still and even a couple of tools left for us courtesy of the RAF!
We decided to go eat at that point. After lunch we headed back to the jet via the Handley Page building, where we got stranded by a very sudden, very horrible shower!
When it cleared we made for the jet again, but made little headway before rain again stopped play. After sheltering miserably in the port gear bay for a while we called it a day
At least the rain turned the jet shiny again!
And now, the begging bowl comes out. Courtesy of Martin Garrett I have on CD a fairly comprehensive set of Meteor F.8 and T.7 AP’s, however a set of NF ones would be great. If anyone has these, or indeed any Meteor NF parts they would like to donate to a worthy cause, I could certainly do with them. The Holy Grail would be to find a complete NF.14 canopy as ours is very foggy indeed.
By: Malcolm McKay - 18th November 2019 at 22:05
See you over there Blu_2
By: l.garey - 18th November 2019 at 15:04
As I’ve hinted before, I am grateful to you for sticking out here as long as you have. So I’m following you over to happier hunting grounds. Will those responsible for dismembering this forum ever learn? And indeed where are all these new improvements we have been promised so often?
See you on the other side.
Laurence
By: Lyffe - 18th November 2019 at 09:52
Although never posting I’ve followed you religiously, Blu-2, and have been awed by your accomplishments. Best wishes for your new home, I’m sure many (all) will follow you.
It is sad that Key failed to realise that the number of views a thread receives are as important, if not more so, than the number of posts since they indicate the popularity of a thread and, indirectly, the website.
By: Blue_2 - 18th November 2019 at 07:45
18/11/19 Update
Well it was never going to go that smoothly Malcolm; fitting new metal to a hand-built British jet never does! I borrowed Danni and Eloise to help me, as well as a couple of ratchet straps to hoist the panel into place and support it while we aligned it. Suffice to say, we were a bit busy for taking too many photos! Getting it hoisted and aligned was satisfying.
Then began the riveting. Which, once we had got enough rivets in to hold the panel, stopped.
Why? because a visitor went running to the office to complain we were making too much noise. An air riveter, in an aircraft hangar, making noise where an aircraft is being restored? Who would have thought it eh? Some people are only happy when they are complaining. In fairness the office were fully supportive of us, but it soured our day. So we did just what we had to do to secure the panel, then thoroughly fed up sacked it off and went to the pub instead. You wonder why we bother…
The new panel has improved the look of the engine nacelle greatly though…
Hopefully next week there’ll be less snowflakes around, and more riveting done… But you’ll have to trek across to UKAR to find that out, as I have made the decision to migrate the restoration thread over there. Key has royally shot itself in the foot, I really don’t like the new presentation and format of the forum, I feel I have given it a fair crack and not enough has changed. As far as my time spent writing these posts vs virtual footfall here goes, I don’t feel anywhere near as many people are getting to see what we are doing now, as this forum has the feel of a ghost town these days, and my efforts are better spent elsewhere. So thankyou to those who have stuck with it, and I hope you’ll follow us across to the new place, it’s only a few mouse clicks away after all!
https://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=84893
So thankyou and goodbye Key, Meteor WS788 out.
By: Malcolm McKay - 17th November 2019 at 21:40
That looks like a 3 Jaffa Cake job Blu_2 – may your rivet holes align perfectly ?
By: Blue_2 - 16th November 2019 at 17:35
16/11/2019 Update(let)
Not the most productive day, as work had to stop due to lack of bodies to lift the new panel in! Much of the work today was drilling out the remains of the rivets, preparing the new panel to go on, and getting everything ready for lifting the panel into position tomorrow really.
All the holes cleared and ready to go. She does look rather naked!
Panel prepared, and lined up ready to simply lift into position (!) tomorrow…
Wish us luck!
By: l.garey - 15th November 2019 at 09:54
I’m really pleased that the tribulations of the last few weeks haven’t discouraged you from posting here. It’s as good as ever. The write-ups are as neat as the drilling.
Laurence
By: Blue_2 - 15th November 2019 at 07:33
Only a mini update maybe, but a full sized day’s graft by one’s self!
By: Malcolm McKay - 15th November 2019 at 04:51
Thanks Blu-2 – good mini update.
By: Blue_2 - 14th November 2019 at 18:46
14/11/2019 Update
I think it’s fair to say I earned my Jaffa Cakes today, not that I actually had chance to devour any. This morning my trusty compressor and I were called upon to assist the Harrier repaint team, as the fairies had been and stolen the air out of one of their outrigger tyres. So, after sorting that (and giving all their other tyres a boost too) and admiring the new paint job nearing completion on the jet, I carted the gear back across to 788, and set out my stall for continuing the de-riveting of the port nacelle. Then just before I started, it was handily enough lunch time! So after a feed battle commenced… First though, I got the goosed rear access panel off. Here it is, handing the baton over to its replacement, still fitted to the new skin
Then it was on with the drilling.
It’s a lot of rivets to remove by yourself! I am very proud to be able to say I did the lot with only one drill bit; none were sacrificed to the tool Gods! After some judicious swearing and careful levering, the lower nacelle was removed. For probably the first time since she was assembled, 788 looks like this:
It’s a big ‘ole!
I then rubbed back the corrosion on the jointing flanges and the ribs, before priming them up
So next visit, the new shiny skin can begin to make itself feel at home!
By: Blue_2 - 13th November 2019 at 14:34
I think its fair to say we certainly work the biscuits etc. off. Well, those of us who don’t spend our time napping under the jet do anyway!
By: Trolley Aux - 13th November 2019 at 10:57
Super update B2,
Blimy the food stores are growing and diminishing fast !
Christmas is coming
The crew are getting fat !
By: Blue_2 - 13th November 2019 at 07:40
Cheers Malcolm; the lass isn’t a bad sidekick/apprentice/pain in the backside, though she does have this tendency to try and take sneaky naps under the jet!
By: Malcolm McKay - 12th November 2019 at 23:20
Excellent stuff Blu_2 – you and Eloise are doing a fine job.
By: Blue_2 - 12th November 2019 at 18:16
12/11/2019 Update
Well I tried to respond this morning Malcolm, but it appears the forum had yet another rush of sh*t to the brain. Still, it seems to be working now. It was a very wintery bonus day in the hangar today; with this in mind Eloise and I fortified ourselves with cookies as well as Jaffa Cakes!
Today, we decided to make a start on removing the port lower engine nacelle skin, prior to fitting the first of the pair of shiny new examples sent our way by East Midlands Aeropark. To ease access, the port main undercarriage door had to be taken back off first
This duly done, we then started in with the fibre wheels on the rivet lines, to reveal the rivets requiring drilling out
I soon had most of the inboard side of the nacelle cleared…
So while Eloise finished the outboard side I hopped into the nacelle to commence the attack on the rib rivets
Eloise soon had her side done. I was still working in the nacelle so, rather than have her start drilling rivets out of the nacelle and potentially holes in me, she went and began rivet chasing on the other nacelle. She got a good bit of it done too, before I called her back as I was ready for the rivet removal to commence!
This gives us a head start on the starboard nacelle. And so, the drill-athon began…
Not the most exciting of things to look at, a row of holes! While I was down there I took a couple of pictures to show you all just why we need to do this work, and why the new lower nacelles are such a godsend…
It ain’t pretty, is it?!
By close of play I think we had 75% of the rivets out…
…and enjoying a new life as piles of swarf!
So, more next time. The good news is, the corporate event in the hangar will be less disruptive than we feared, so it’ll be more or less business as usual for the next fortnight!
By: Malcolm McKay - 11th November 2019 at 21:51
Thanks Blu_2 – another fine update from the Operation Jaffa Cake team. ?
By: Blue_2 - 11th November 2019 at 07:48
11/11/2019 Update
…As I’m sure you can appreciate, given the fact that it was Remembrance Sunday yesterday, not very much engineering happened. It was one of those days that was more about the people than the aircraft, and rightly so. Given the museum’s French connections, this took an unexpected turn later in the day for us on the Meteor team too; more on that later. But first, seeing as it was sunny, and the Meteor 8 has moved round to outside our side of the hangar, I decided to open her canopy to give her cockpit a few hours’ airing out.
I thought seeing as this was a day for reflection, this shot seemed very appropriate. The number of crew killed flying these first generation jets, the Meteor, Vampire, Venom etc, as the RAF took its first steps into the Brave New World of jet operations are quite staggering.
A part of why we do what we do is for those chaps, who were then flying at the cutting edge of British aviation. It tends to be overlooked these days, just what a dicey business operating the early jets could be…
Anyway, in the morning before the ceremonials started I broke out the new stash of rollers I bought this week, and got the outer skin of the starboard inner undercarriage door and 2 of the airbrake access hatches in silver topcoat
Scott, Simon and myself then made our way to the memorial garden to join some of our visitors for the Silence at 11am. After this, not a great deal of work happened really, I was busy sorting some stuff for our move to the workshop for the next 2 weeks as we have had a work embargo put on us as Kia have hired half the hangar for a corporate event and don’t want us noisy dirty oiks in there, so we’ll cart stuff over to the workshop to work on. At least there’s heaters in there!
After lunch, we were again largely busy with visitors etc, though we also got on with the laborious process of checking out the captive nuts in the forward fuselage sides. A number of the screws attaching these to 788 had had to be drilled out, and while the remains of the screws could be coaxed out of some with some deft application of mole grips, this didn’t work for them all. So we played noughts and crosses on the jet, marking out the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly…
Then the afternoon service and commemorations were carried out at YAM, which we were proud to attend. After this, I was asked to show some French visitors around the NF project. A lot of people forget that the NF was exported widely, including to the French air force. One of the French pilots inextricably linked with York is Yves Mahé, who as a wartime Hurricane night fighter pilot flew against German bombers attacking York during the Baedecker raids during 1942. This link tells you his story, and it is quite a story;
http://yorkcivictrust.co.uk/heritage/civic-trust-plaques/yves-mahe-1919-1962/
While I had of course heard of him, I was not aware that after his wartime service he rejoined the French air force, and was in 1962 killed flying a Meteor NF. The visitors I was asked to show around 788 were his son, and 5 grandsons, who were all keen to learn more about the type Yves died in. All had a sit in the cockpit, and went away knowing a lot more about the machine that sadly claimed their relative’s life. That is one of the reasons why we do what we do to return 788 to her former glory…
As things started to quieten down, we made a start on replacing the duff captive nuts on the starboard side and turning those crosses into noughts…
before calling it a day. I’ll leave you with this picture…
By: Blue_2 - 9th November 2019 at 08:59
Jaffa cakes and morale go hand in hand I find; Happy tummies= happy team!
By: me109g4 - 8th November 2019 at 02:27
Living in the States do you realize how many yrs. its been since i had a Jaffa cake??? sheer torment to see boxes of them but so far away. lol.
By: Trak-Tor - 6th November 2019 at 11:52
Both, of course. ?
I have to taste those cakes while visiting the UK next time.
Maybe I’ll find some nice old aeroplane in my backyard after eating a few…
Juraj
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