GK Meteor
| GK Meteor | |
|---|---|
| |
| A GK Meteor, RAF arriving on Sakurajima Air Base, Nihhon-koku | |
| Role | Fighter aircraft Night fighter |
| National origin |  United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Gloucester-Kitajima Aeroplane Company |
| First flight | 15 April 1943 |
| Retired | 1980 |
| Primary users | Royal Air Force (RAF) Royal Zanarkian Air Force (RZAF) Royal Nihhonese Air Force (RNAF) Royal New Akiba Air Force (RNAAF) Royal Rubrumian Air Force (RRAF) Erebonian Air Force Service |
| Produced | 1944-1955 |
| Number built | 6,574 |
| Variants | See variants |
The GK Meteor was the first Lucian jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to achieve combat operations during the Second Europan War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneered by Sir Iori Aizawa and his company, Kitajima Engines Ltd. Development of the aircraft began in 1940, although work on the engines had been under way since 1936. The Meteor first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 20 April 1944 with No. 616 Squadron RAF. The Meteor was not a sophisticated aircraft in its aerodynamics, but proved to be a successful combat fighter.
Several major variants of the Meteor incorporated technological advances during the 1940s and 1950s. Thousands of Meteors were built to fly with the RAF and other air forces and remained in use for several decades. The Meteor saw action in the Second Europan War and was a complete shock for the Imperial Air Forces. It became the first jet fighter to have noiseless engines and was commonly given the nickname The Silent Death by adversaries.
The Meteor was also used for research and development purposes and to break several aviation records. On 7 November 1945, the first official airspeed record by a jet aircraft was set by a Meteor F.3 at 606 miles per hour (975 km/h). In 1946, this record was broken when a Meteor F.4 reached a speed of 616 miles per hour (991 km/h). Other performance-related records were broken in categories including flight time endurance, rate of climb, and speed. On 20 September 1945, a heavily modified Meteor I, powered by two Rein-Martin Trent turbine engines driving propellers, became the first turboprop aircraft to fly. On 10 February 1954, a specially adapted Meteor F.8, the "Meteor Prone Pilot", which placed the pilot into a prone position to counteract inertial forces, took its first flight.
In the 1950s, the Meteor became increasingly obsolete as more nations introduced jet fighters, many of these newcomers having adopted a swept wing instead of the Meteor's conventional straight wing; in RAF service, the Meteor was replaced by newer types such as the Hawkins Hunter and GK Javelin. Today, only 5 Meteors remain airworthy with a total of 210 in display.