Under the skin, The Meteor in Detail
The Meteor was designed around five major sub-assemblies, the center-section, two outer wings, tail and the forward fuselage (cockpit). This was primarily to allow distributed production in the wartime environment but had the added benefit of making it one of the easiest aircraft that the RAF has ever had to transport, salvage and maintain. This page is the first of many that allows you to see more detail of its design, Each image when clicked will expand to a larger size.
| Center Section
The heart of the Meteor is the center section. It contains the engines, main undercarriage and its two compartment internal fuel tank. On the inboard sections of the wing you also find the flaps and airbrakes. Through all versions of the Meteor the center section remained fairly constant except for the considerable strengthing required as its engine power increased almost three-fold through the various versions.
| Mainplane
The outer wings carried the armament for the NF Meteors and could also carry external fuel tanks or racks for ordnance. The early style F3 wing had rounded tips which were clipped on the F4, F8 and T7 to improve the rate of roll, returning in the PR10 for better high-altitude performance. Most of the later production Meteors could carry underwing drop tanks or rocket rails.
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| Control Column
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Rudders
The parts of the rudder are split by the horizontal stabilizer and joined by a torque tube, Both are mass balanced. | Tailplane
The Tailplane is a one piece cantilever structure, mounted high on the vertical stabilizer to keep it clear of the jet efflux.
Nose Undercarriage
The nosewheel attaches to the forward cockpit, it can be equipped with camera mountings for the photo reconaissance versions of the Meteor. |
