In many publications from Janes via Putnams to the Boys Book of Aircraft the text usually has something like “and the longest of the Meteor night fighters at 51′ 4 “…
The following is the explanation I put in the instructions for my 1/48 kit some years ago.
It was whilst preparing the patterns for the 1:48 range of NF Meteors, that I found a nose panel on the Mk.14 which if scribed to the (published) drawing didn’t look like the photograph. So it was off to nearby Newark Air Museum were I took some measurements and opened up a whole can of worms, even bearing in mind the codicil “museum aeroplanes can sometimes be odd balls”.
The overall length of the Meteor NF.Mk.14 is almost always quoted in both major and minor publications and on most published drawings as being 51’ 4 and the text often includes a statement on the lines of “the NF.14 had an even longer nose”. I found this is not correct and that virtually all published drawings and length data for this aeroplane are wrong.
At some time an error of 17 inches has occurred in dimensions of the NF.Mk.14 in print and this myth has been perpetuated time and time again.
The first Night Fighter Meteor was the NF.11 which used the British radar AI.10 and was 48’ 6” long. This was followed by the Mk.12 and the first Night Fighter to use the new American AI 21 (ARI 5860) radar. To accommodate this new radar, the nose was made 17” longer ( than a NF.11) becoming 49’11” long. Note: the NF.13 is a Tropicalised Mk.11.
NF Mk.14’s were also fitted with AI 21 and were identical in length to a NF.Mk.12 at 49’ 11” not the oft published 51’ 4”, This was confirmed by my borrowing Air Publication AP 2210P vol 1, the only differences, being the new blown canopy and a servo operated rudder. At some point someone has added 17” twice. No NF. Mk14 was 51’ 4” long. 17 inches is nearly 3/8ths of an inch or 9mm in 1:48 scale. The 12 and 14 both had the same increase in fin area to compensate for the nose extension.
The NF.Mk. 14 nose looks longer than the Mk.12 as it has a shorter windscreen and shorter engine nacelles (the bigger bore Derwent 8 intakes are cut back in length). In service the length of some Mk.12’s and all Mk.14’s became shorter at 49’ 8.5” when a passive tail warning radar R3697 was fitted, and the tail cone was removed. Later in service as navigation trainers NF. (T) Mk.14. it sometimes occurred that when the redundant radome’s tatty di-electric was re-painted gloss black the first metal mounting ring was also painted giving the illusion of a longer radome. As a consequence of this new information, as far as I am aware, most Meteor NF.14 (model) drawings and/or data are in error with the exception of an early (1950’s) Aeromodeller drawing those published length is correct.
The Matchbox kit can be easily corrected by using the kit Mk.12 nose instead of the Mk.14 parts.
I have also been able to check the aluminium evidence by measuring Mk’s 11, 12 and three different Mk.14 s thanks to our small volunteer Air museums.
As far as I’m aware the first time (since Aeromodeller) that the correct length was published other than the AP, was when following a letter I had published in Aeroplane Monthly, Phil Butler contacted me and put the details in his and Tony Buttler’s book on the Meteor.
This is not the only wrongly dimensioned aeroplane out there.
John
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