Gloster Whittle Aircraft

[SPIT]

Hi
Somebody mentioned the other day a Gloster Whittle Gormless jet aeroplane in the 40s. I can only think that it was the E28/29 aircraft. Can anybody confirm this please ???:confused: :confused:

Ref the above A WHOLE PINT is stated on this being correct??

[PPRuNe Pop]

Dunno about "Gormless Jet" - that cannot be right - but it was the E28/39 Gloster Whittle. It hangs in the Science Museum now.

[Malcolm G O Payne]

I should know the answer as a former Gloster apprentice. I believe that there was a single-engine Gloster aircraft after the E28/39, but only one was built and it was unsuccesful.

[Conan the Librarian]

They did build another single, though its name escapes me. Portly, (Nene maybe?) single finned and looked like a Meteor canopy on it. It will come back to me later... hopefully....

Conan

[twenty eight]

How about the G.42 (E.1/44)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/seven28/avmetc.gif

[John Farley]

Bill Warterton who did the first flight on the E1/44 called it the Gormless. It was binned and they did the Meteor instead.

Sorry about the pint but the Gormless was not the E28/39

[jabberwok]

John,

Was it Bill Waterton who landed a Javelin back at Gloucester after the tailplane separated?

[henry crun]

jabberwok: Without wishing to preempt John's reply I don't think there was a tailplane separation.

IIRC Waterton suffered elevator separation after severe flutter, but he managed to retain enough control with the tailplane trimmer.

The aircraft did crash on or after touchdown and catch fire but he escaped.

[John Farley]

jabberwok

Henry is right. I would add that after he escaped Bill went back to the aircraft. It was was well on fire and the crash crew had not yet arrived but he wanted to get the flight test recorder from the nose. Driven back by the flames he grabbed a hose from the crew after they arrived and managed to protect the nose and get the recorder. He was awarded the George Medal (civilian VC) for this act of bravery.

JF

[teeteringhead]

George Medal (civilian VC) .... not wishing to diminish the act or the award JF , but for the sake of accuracy it's the George Cross that's the civilian VC (ie, highest bravery award), the George Medal is for (ever so slightly) lesser exploits.....

...and neither of course are confined to civilians....

[spekesoftly]

My father had an interesting moment whilst flying a Gloster E.1/44 (TX145). At the time he was a Flight Lieutenant with the Aerodynamics Flight at RAE Farnborough. On the 2nd November 1950 he was at 26,000ft, above solid cloud cover, when the engine flamed-out. During the descent he was guided by Farnborough Radar while he tried, unsuccessfully, to relight the engine. A major concern was that the electrically operated flight instruments might fail if too much battery power was used up. He broke cloud at about 3,000ft to be told by radar that Gatwick (then a grass field with a steel mesh runway) was straight ahead. From this position he was able to make a wheels-down glide landing, only sustaining a burst tyre towards the end of the landing roll.

[John Farley]

teeteringhead

Thank you for pointing that out

JF

[Milt]

Can someone describe a Meteor Mk9 and its particular attributes?

Was the Mk9 the last of the marks?

[spekesoftly]

I believe the NF 14 was the last production version of the Meteor.

[henry crun]

Milt: The short answer is no.

The Mk9 first flew in Mar 1950, this was much the same as the Mk8 with the same armament plus camera/s in the nose.
If you have flown an 8 it was probably much the same as the 9.

The Mk10 came soon after, and this had more cameras, no armament, and the bigger wing of the earlier Mk3 and the later NF versions.

The NF11 with mk10 radar was next in April 1950, followed by the NF12 which had the mk21 radar and a longer nose to accomodate same and a slightly different fin.

The Mk13 was a tropicalised version of the NF11, and the NF14 was much the same as the NF12 but with a nice big clear canopy.

A number of mostly NF aircraft were subsequently modified for target towing and given different designations.