Meteor Drones and Target Towing
The significant increase in performance and the development of the first generation of air-to-air missiles made it necessary to create higher performance targets for weapons development trials. An ideal solution to this problem was to make use of the Meteor F4 which had been built in significant numbers before being witdrawn in favour of the much more capable F8.
The first prototype drone was RA421, this was built by Flight Refuelling Ltd at Tarrant Rushton (Now a subsiduary of Cobham Plc) who built a total of 92 aircraft based on F4 airframes which were designated U15's. 59 of these aircraft were shipped to the Woomera Weapons Research establishment in Australia with a further 10 to 728 Squadron FAA, the remainder operated from RAF Llanbedr in South Wales. Later they built 150 further drones designated the the U16 which was based on the Meteor F8 as they were witdrawn from service in favour of later generation jet fighters.
U16 drone WH344 in August 1961. As an F8 it served 504 Sqn RAF
Conversion to a drone at least for the F8/ U16 involved the installation of radio link equipment an autopilot and other instrumentation which varied depending on the nature of the trials. The cannons were removed and the majority of the electronics fitted in the nose section extended by 30 inches with a large hinged door for access. They also had new generators to supply the extra power (Increased from 4,000 to 12,000 watts) for onboard equipment, cameras are fitted in jetsionable wing tip units. One U16, WK800 survives to this day and is still operated from RAF Llanbedr where the majority of U16's were based. An additional airframe WH453 was grounded a number of years ago and serves as a source of spares.
Pilotless drone Meteor WK800 landing at Llanbedr
In addition to the Meteor Drones, the Meteor was also used to tow targets. The TT20 was little more than an NF11 nighfighter with a wing mounted winch, 6,100 ft of cable and a modified aft fuselage to store the targets which were launched in flight. Twenty six aircraft were converted with one of these G-LOSM (WM167) still airworthy although it has now been restored to its NF11 configuration.
WO767 deploying its target (Or a real test of the gunners accuracy!)
NF11's being converted to TT20's at Moreton Valance in 1961