Inflight Refuelling
One of the deficiencies of the Meteor was its relatively poor endurance due to the high fuel consumption of first generation turbojets. To counter this experiments were initiated to see how practical it would be to refuel fighters from airborn tankers. Carried out by Flight Refuelling Ltd a company formed by Alan Cobham in 1936 they were started using EE397 an F Mk III and an Lancaster tanker in September 1945.
Meteor F3, EE389 being refuelled by a converted Avro Lancaster
The first probe-drouge refuelling took place on the 24th April 1949 and a new flight endurance record was set on the 7th August when EE397stayed airbourne for 12 hours and 3 minutes with the assistance of an Avro Lancastrian tanker. Later trials were conducted with Lincoln tankers which were considered to be more suitable for the task. EE397 later went to the Empire Test Pilots school ending its days as as an instructional airframe with 38 MU. Other aircraft to take part in flight refuelling trials included RA438 at Boscombe Down and VZ389 which demonstrated flight refuelling at the 1950 Farnborough airshow.
Operation Pinnacle
In addition to trials involving individual aircraft it was also considered necessary to conduct more extensive operational trials. To this end 245 Squadron based at Horsham St Faith undertook "Operation Pinnacle" starting in May 1951. Sixteen F8 Meteors were involved with the tankers operated by Flight Refuelling Ltd (Now part of Cobham Plc). One of these aircraft WA829 survives today as is on display at the Tangmere Aviation Museum near Chicester. While "Pinnacle" proved the viability of air-air refuelling, production Meteor's did not have the capability to be refuelled in flight. This was probably because as a type it was nearing the end of its operational life.
Avro Lincoln refuelling a Meteor F4
Flight Refuelling Ltd operated from Tarrant-Rushton, in addition to flight refuelling development work they also refurbished many Meteors after RAF service for export to overseas airforces. They also built a large number of Meteor target drones based on surplus Meteor F4 and F8's as later generation jet fighters entered service.