Fuerza Aerea Argentina

Argentinia was the first export customer for the Meteor F. Mk IV. They ordered 100 aircraft in May 1947 and almost created a major diplomatic incident as America at the time had imposed an arms embargo as a result of the leadership of the Peron regime. Fifty Meteors were built especially for the order, the other fifty being refurbished ex RAF aircraft including EE548 which had been the reserve aircraft for the High Speed flight in 1946. The Meteors were delivered between May 1947 and September 1948 and were operated from bases in Tandil, Moran and Palomar.


An RAF were not the only ones to see how fast they could retract their
undercarriage after takeoff (Dr Hernan Longoli).

The Meteors served for many years and were briefly involved on both sides during the anti-Peron uprising of 1955 when three were captured by rebel forces. One of the captured aircraft was lost in an engine explosion as a result of the rebel forces using raw petrol to power the captured aircraft, while a government Meteor was shot down during an anti-shipping attack later in the conflict. In 1958 the Meteors were fitted with bomb racks and rocket launching rails and re-serialled from I- to C- to reflect their new role as fighter-bombers.


Meteor F4, 027 after it was re-serialled for its new Fighter-Bomber role. This aircraft
remained in service until 1970 (Jorge Leonardi via Dr Hernan Longoli).

In 1963 the Meteors were re-painted from overall silver to green-grey camoflage pattern with sky blue undersides which better reflected their role in anti-surface missions, they would retain this coloration until the end of their service in 1970 when the last twelve aircraft were retired after a flypast over Buenos Aires, their role taken up by newly arrived Mirage IIIEa's.

Many thanks to Dr Hernan Longoli for permission to use the images on this page and for supplying information and images of some of the surviving Argentinian Meteor F4's. Despite receiving all their Meteor F Mk IV's in the late 1940 a large percentage have survived. As you can see some pictures are still missing and help would be appreciated confirming the status of the the listed aircraft and in getting up to date pictures of them all. If you can help please get in touch.