Exports - Denmark
Denmark purchased four major variants of the Gloster Meteor. The first were twenty single seat F4's ordered in May 1949 for the Naval Air Service at Karup. Deliveries began in October to the unit which acted as an operational conversion unit for the new type. With the establishment of the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) in 1950 the F4's transferred to to the newly formed 723 sqn RDAF which continued to operate the F4's until the last one was retired in 1957.
In 1950 the RDAF purchased nine two seat T7 trainers and 20 F8 fighters. This made Denmark the first foreign air force to order the F8 which were delivered between January and June 1951. The F8's served as frontline fighters with 724 sqn until 1956 when the majority were retired and scrapped when the squadron converted to Hawker Hunters. A small number of F8's were re-allocated to target-towing duties with the last of them finally retired in 1962 along with the last two remaining T7's (The other seven T7's were lost in training accidents).
One of the nine T7 trainers operated by the RDAF (www.ftk.dk)
The final Meteor type in RDAF service was the NF11 nightfighter. Twenty of these served between December 1952 and 1957 with 723 sqn at Karup and later Aalborg. As with the F8's although the majority of NF11's were scrapped when they were replaced in service by North American Sabres, six were converted to TT20 target tugs, remaining in service until August 1962 in that role.