Salvage of Meteor Gloster Mk. 3 EE411

On the crash location we have also found this instrument from cockpit area.
What for a item is it ?

Thanks

Nils

PS. More pictures you can find on my website www.spurensuchesh.de and my partner site www.luftfahrtspuren.de

A good excuse to use this photo of a rather bent one. Code is H (definite) and E (probably) then P (definite). Maybe No 263 Sqn. ‘C’ Type hangar in background so could be Horsham St Faith or Church Fenton, both squadron bases. There is a small unidentifiable cartoon character painted on the nose. Pathfinder, you are welcome to use it on your website if you want to.

Meteor Digs

Hi – We dug a Meteor crash site at the end of last year – sorry no details as paperwork on a found weapon still outstanding. We were also amazed by the lack of airframe and engine debris from what had been by all accounts a full impact. Only a few very dense items had actually embedded themselves in the ground – lead ballast weights, tail skid, mass balance weights and one 20mm Hispano – in two pieces! There were a few parts from the cockpit, but these were well above the bottom of the crater and we surmised they had probably been thrown back in – part of the cockpit floor structure, base of control column, radio tuner and a few misc controls.

It seems that on impact there had been a tremendous explosion and this had dissipated the momentum and blown the remains of the aircraft outwards instead of it embedding itself in the ground. Whether this is typical of meteor crashes I don’t know – but your experience sounds very similar – in our case the pilot was also blown clear we found later he had been found hanging in a nearby tree. Having dug another jet a few years ago – a Supermarine attacker – we were expecting bits of engine to be everywhere, but did not even find one turbine blade!!!

Thanks 😉

Thanks Peter for the info. I am looking for a picture of a complete speed indicator.

It is bad, but we have not found the engines, wings, or fuselage. Only hundrets of aluminium parts, and parts from cockpit (also 2cm windshield glasses).
We dont know where the other aircraft parts are. It is possible that the Royal Air Force have recovered the a/c after the crash… (Crash date 16.06.1947)

Nils

Here`s a photo of the face as it should be.
Peter

Hi Keil
It is one of the two engine speed indicators, it used to read RPM.
I would be interested to know if this was one of the early F3s with the Rolls-Royce Welland engines. Any pictures of the engine wreckage would be of interest.
Peter