Brazil

Brazil were the second major export customer for the Meteor taking delivery of 60 F8's and 10 T7 trainers which they designated the TF-7. The Meteors were ordered in April 1947 to allow the retirement of their aging piston-engined P47 Thunderbolts, at the time Brazil was hard pressed for foreign currency so payment was made in the form of 15,000 tons of raw cotton. The Brazilian F8's were configured for interception and ground attack missions and could carry up to ten 5 in HVAR rockets or two 500lb bombs on reinforced wings. To extend there range they could also carry underwing drop tanks in addition to the standard ventral tank. Brazilian Meteors were also fitted with the Bendix AN/ARN-6 automatic direction finder in a housing on the fuselage spine in a similar position to that of RAAF Meteors in Korea.

Ten experienced pilots were sent to Britain for conversion onto type including the commanding officers of the squadrons that would operate the Meteor. They were joined by five specialist officers and NCO's who were trained in the operation and maintenance of jet engines and aircraft by Rolls-Royce and Glosters. Following their training Brazilian pilots flight tested the aircraft in England before supervising their disassembly and packing for delivery to Brazil by sea.


A TF-7 being used to train Brazilian pilots in Britain prior to the delivery of the first aircraft.

The first to be delivered were the ten TF-7's which were serialled FAB 4300 to 4309, eight were new built aircraft while WL486 & WL845 were refurbished folowing service with the RAF. The first to fly on the 22nd May 1953 was 4301 with Gloster test-pilot Andrew McDowall at the controls. The TF-7's were followed by the sixty F8's serialled FAB 4400 to 4458. The F*'s were all new built although five had originally been allocated for delivery to Egypt (One of the T7's was also built for Egypt). The Meteors served with the 1st Fighter Aviation Group (1°/1° and 2°/1° GAvCa) at Santa Cruz, near Rio de Janeiro and the 1°/14° Aviation Group at Canoas, near Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil.


Brazilian F8 (R. da Cunha via N.L. Senandes)

While in service with the Brazilian Air Force the F8's Meteors encountered problems with the early style part metal and part plexiglass canopy. A number of accidents occurred where the canopy exploded although no aircraft or pilots were lost, the problem was traced to excessive stresses created by spending time parked outside in Rio de Janeiro's hot weather followed by a flight to high altitude with the metal and plexiglass expanding and contracting at different rates. The solution came in the form of a new one piece transparent unit which also markedly improved the pilots visibility, all the Brazilian F8's were fitted with the new canopy by the end of 1957 and it became standard on all later production F8's.

The Brazilian Meteors also suffered fatigue cracking in the rear wing spar. This was a common problem in the Meteor although it occurred to a greater extent in Brazil due to their extensive use of the aircraft in low level flight. Following the discovery of the cracks the fleet was grounded with some being retired permanently. The remainder were repaired and returned to service, to this day it is the condition of the rear spar that determines whether a Meteor airframe can be returned to airworthiness. A 61st F8 was assembled from spare parts and serialled first 4399 and finally 4460, it has caused much confusion over the years for historians. The last operational flight of an F-8 was on the 8th November 1967, a few TF-7s flew on until 1971 eventually being replaced by the Lockheed AT-33, FAB 4460 outlasted the other Meteors by three years, used to test the camouflage for the AT-26 Xavante and becoming the only camouflaged Meteor in FAB it also served as a target tug with the 1st Fighter Group, it was finally retired to the Aerospace Museum at Campo dos Afonsos, Rio de Janeiro, arriving in 1974.


FAB 4414, 1°/1° Grupo de Aviaçâo (GAvCa), Brazilian Air Force, Santa Cruz, after 1962.

The Brazilian Meteors were some of the most colourful, an example being those of 2°/1° GAvCa who carried red trim with blue/yellow stripes. Up until 1962 the aircraft were overall aluminium with black codes on the rear fuselage (e.g. A1, F1).

Brazil operated the Meteor as a front-line fighter until the mid 1960's when they began to be replaced by the Mirage IIIe's. They retired the last of their F8's in 1968 although 1º/14º GAV retired its F8's as early as November 1966. The last flight of a TF-7 was made by FAB 4309 on the 7 October 1971.

Further reference:
Rudnei da Cunda:History of the Brazilian Air Force
Mauro Lins de Barros & Oswaldo Claro Jr, Faixas Azuis/Blue Ribbons published by Adler Editora (Spanish?).

Thanks to Mauro Lins de Barros for help with this page and some great photos of surviving Brazilian Meteors, Last Update April 2009.