A Gloster Meteor in Gloucestershire skies again today.
Discussion
Not quite the same as I remember seeing them as a small boy back in the early 1950 though. With Chinook assist this time :~
Here's another thing you do not see every day. That Gloster Meteor has been a Gate Guard at RAF Innsworth for as long as I can remember. The Army are there now so it was moved to a remote field on the site and a Gun now is the gate Guard. Such is progress. Today it was airlifted away to an Aircraft Museum using a twin Rotor Chinook Helecopter. It was a little windy and my much used and a tad battle scarred compact digital CANON IX IS coped quite well with the little lens pushed through the chicken wire mesh perimeter fence. The whole process between the Chinook arriving, hooking up and airlifting the Gloster Meteor away took about ten minutes.
As a small boy in the early 1950s, Gloster Meteors and Javelins were a very frequent sight in the skies above Gloucestershire. The occasional and rare 'sonic Boom' was also to be heard about that time. Click on image :~
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/MGJohn/media/Meteo...
Here's another thing you do not see every day. That Gloster Meteor has been a Gate Guard at RAF Innsworth for as long as I can remember. The Army are there now so it was moved to a remote field on the site and a Gun now is the gate Guard. Such is progress. Today it was airlifted away to an Aircraft Museum using a twin Rotor Chinook Helecopter. It was a little windy and my much used and a tad battle scarred compact digital CANON IX IS coped quite well with the little lens pushed through the chicken wire mesh perimeter fence. The whole process between the Chinook arriving, hooking up and airlifting the Gloster Meteor away took about ten minutes.
As a small boy in the early 1950s, Gloster Meteors and Javelins were a very frequent sight in the skies above Gloucestershire. The occasional and rare 'sonic Boom' was also to be heard about that time. Click on image :~
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/MGJohn/media/Meteo...
Superb footage on BBC news website tonight of the Meteor being moved.
£3k for an iconic aircraft? Hadn't realised it was for sale for such a small amount. Good to see it has been saved as it had been sat on the fringes of the airfield looking sorry for itself for quite a while.
Looking forward to the Jet Age Musuem being opened to the public. It's about time that Gloucester started to think about it's heritage as opposed to not giving a stuff about it!!
Also good to see that the leader of our city council didn't get his stupid face in on the act like he usually does.
£3k for an iconic aircraft? Hadn't realised it was for sale for such a small amount. Good to see it has been saved as it had been sat on the fringes of the airfield looking sorry for itself for quite a while.
Looking forward to the Jet Age Musuem being opened to the public. It's about time that Gloucester started to think about it's heritage as opposed to not giving a stuff about it!!
Also good to see that the leader of our city council didn't get his stupid face in on the act like he usually does.
becker-on-ph said:
With all the old aircraft factory site now covered in retail shops, houses and business park - the last bit of tangible aircraft history has gone, all we have left are pubs and roads named after famous aircraft or inventors - shame something couldn't have been retained at Staverton.
Yes, nothing remains except the memories of the GAC I remember so well and its historic Aerodrome. All covered now in high density housing and massive industrial units. There were several hundred people and many cars there. I had to push the little lens through the chicken wire fencing and when the Chinook with the Gloster Meteor lifted off and was soon directly overhead, I had to withdraw the camera and move sharpish. I had not expected the lift and move off to happen so quickly. That explains why the camera was pointed to the grass for a few seconds as I along with the other folks there, it was quite crowded with rough ground, moved to the other side to get better continuing images.
Apparently good coverage on TV news.
The GAC ( Gloster Aircraft Factory ) Aerodrome at Brockworth I visited many times in the early 1950s. Several of my relatives worked there building planes and some, when retired actually lived in a large house within the Aerodrome. I spent many happy hours there on frequent visits when I was 9, 10, 11 and 12 seeing lots of action with Javelins leaving the assembly sheds, warming up their engines for ages and then taking off on their maiden flights. In a large corrugated iron shed in a far corner of the Aerodrome was a pristing Gloster Gladiator Biplane as my younger brother and I discovered on one of our exploration trips. These included wandering around the assembly sheds where Javelins were being prepared for their maiden flights. No body about so we had a look around and I climbed up on one of the trestles and got my arm nearly stuck in one of the holes in the leading edge of the wings. Cannon holes ...
... you do that sort of thing when you're ten years old.I used to work at RAF Innsworth about 10 years ago.
I swung by there about a year ago when I had to go to Cheltenham with work and I saw that the army had put a gun in it's place and I assumed that she'd either gone to a new home or been cut up for scrap.
Glad to see she's not been made into coke cans.
I swung by there about a year ago when I had to go to Cheltenham with work and I saw that the army had put a gun in it's place and I assumed that she'd either gone to a new home or been cut up for scrap.
Glad to see she's not been made into coke cans.
Wonder how tricky a load that is for the Chinook? I remember reading an interesting thread on pprune about underslung loads and the most unlikely objects trying to generate their own lift whilst carried. With something designed to do that in the first place (clipped wings or not), I imagine it was an interesting one.
shouldbworking said:
Wonder how tricky a load that is for the Chinook? I remember reading an interesting thread on pprune about underslung loads and the most unlikely objects trying to generate their own lift whilst carried. With something designed to do that in the first place (clipped wings or not), I imagine it was an interesting one.
Not a huge challenge. Vne for the Metoer when carried as a load will be roundabout the same as or less than Vs when it flew under it's own power. Probably weather-cock bit at first, but after that loads that were once designed to fly often fly better than lumpy nets full of Army crap.
Crossflow Kid said:
Not a huge challenge. Vne for the Metoer when carried as a load will be roundabout the same as or less than Vs when it flew under it's own power. Probably weather-cock bit at first, but after that loads that were once designed to fly often fly better than lumpy nets full of Army crap.
And what makes you an expert??? 
becker-on-ph said:
With all the old aircraft factory site now covered in retail shops, houses and business park - the last bit of tangible aircraft history has gone, all we have left are pubs and roads named after famous aircraft or inventors - shame something couldn't have been retained at Staverton.
And of course not many drivers on the M5 know that when they're on a particularly straight, flat bit of the motorway between junctions 12 and 13, they're actually running along the main runway of Moreton Valence airfield, where Meteors and Javelins were test flown in the pioneering days of jet aircraft...orangeknight said:
Crossflow Kid said:
Not a huge challenge. Vne for the Metoer when carried as a load will be roundabout the same as or less than Vs when it flew under it's own power. Probably weather-cock bit at first, but after that loads that were once designed to fly often fly better than lumpy nets full of Army crap.
And what makes you an expert??? TheLastPost said:
becker-on-ph said:
With all the old aircraft factory site now covered in retail shops, houses and business park - the last bit of tangible aircraft history has gone, all we have left are pubs and roads named after famous aircraft or inventors - shame something couldn't have been retained at Staverton.
And of course not many drivers on the M5 know that when they're on a particularly straight, flat bit of the motorway between junctions 12 and 13, they're actually running along the main runway of Moreton Valence airfield, where Meteors and Javelins were test flown in the pioneering days of jet aircraft...Up on nearby Haresfield Beacon, I knew a then very aged retired professional Birds' Egg collector who lived high up on the hill. Met him by chance when my headstrong younger brother ( he who now drives a six pot Bee-Em so what does he know ...
) crashed his push bike into the grassy bank down the 1 in 4 hill, flying over the hedge into this old man's garden... almost knocking himself out. My brother would have been about ten then and did not heed my warning that his bike's brakes would not cope. His bones still rubbery so no real harm done. Anyway, this friendly old Guy had a Massive pair of Tripod Mounted ex-German Navy WWII Binoculars. I spent hours looking over the Vale of Gloucester with those including the trains on the nearby mainline at the bottom of the hill and the planes on the airfield. You could 'spot' the Locomotive's numbers in those early 1950s ~ that's what most kids did back then as there was not the multitude of distractions available to youngsters today. No real loss though, quite the opposite. I could travel up to Birmingham from Gloucester on a cheap Saturday "Football" return ticket... cost ... half a crown ... that's 12.5 pence in today's currency. Now that's value .. Great days gorn forever.
EDIT to add @ 22:13.
By the way, one of my other many interests is Natural history. Both Brockworth and Moreton Valence Aerodromes had colonies of the rare Marsh Fritillary Butterfly on the flat marshy areas. The last time I saw a Marsh Fritillary in Glos was in the summer of 1978. None seen since.
Like many MoD and Defence areas, some were ideal "natural" nature reserves owing to lack of access by most folks and other things which destroy habitats.
Edited by MGJohn on Tuesday 23 April 22:13
orangeknight said:
Crossflow Kid said:
Not a huge challenge. Vne for the Metoer when carried as a load will be roundabout the same as or less than Vs when it flew under it's own power. Probably weather-cock bit at first, but after that loads that were once designed to fly often fly better than lumpy nets full of Army crap.
And what makes you an expert??? 
The Gloster aircraft company was originally based in Gloucester. Indeed, in its earliest permutation, it spelled the company name the same as the county but they later simplified the spelling so that "furrners" would pronounce it properly.
One of their main bases was the airfield at Moreton Valance which is indeed in the county of Gloucestershire.
During World War 2 and into the 1950s, a lot of airframe manufacturing was sub-contracted to other aircraft companies so not every Gloster aircraft was made in Gloucestershire. For instance, all the Meteor NF11/12/14 night fighter variants were manufactured under licence by Armstrong Whitworth in Coventry.
From the mid 1930s, Gloster was part of the Hawker Siddeley group so there was a certain amount of sharing of airframe manufacturing with the other companies within the group.
One of their main bases was the airfield at Moreton Valance which is indeed in the county of Gloucestershire.
During World War 2 and into the 1950s, a lot of airframe manufacturing was sub-contracted to other aircraft companies so not every Gloster aircraft was made in Gloucestershire. For instance, all the Meteor NF11/12/14 night fighter variants were manufactured under licence by Armstrong Whitworth in Coventry.
From the mid 1930s, Gloster was part of the Hawker Siddeley group so there was a certain amount of sharing of airframe manufacturing with the other companies within the group.
Edited by Eric Mc on Saturday 27th April 11:07
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