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Gloster Meteor F4

The Meteor F4 (G.41F) capitalised on the improved speed of the last fifteen Meteor F III's with their longer nacelles by adding the much more powerful Rolls Royce Derwent 5 turbojet. Although carrying the same name as the earlier Meteor engines it was an entirely new design developed by scaling down the 5,000 Lb thrust RB41 Nene which was too big to fit in any of the current British jet aircraft of the time. The new engine altough smaller produced produced 3,200 lbs of thrust a significant increase over the Derwent IV.

The new fighter was strengthened to absorb the increase in engine power, had an armoured pressurised cockpit and lighter controls which allowed the aircraft to take part in aerobatics which had been prevented in the F Mk III by wiring the ailerons heavy to prevent the airframe from being over stressed.

F Mk. IV's of 66 Squadron RAF, 1950

The prototype F Mk.IV, EE360 first flew on the 17th July 1945 and a total of 535 were built for the RAF including 48 by Armstrong Whitworth. The F4 was exported in significant numbers with 100 going to Argentina fifty of these being refurbished ex RAF machines with the remainder new-built by Gloster.

The first production Meteor F4's were built with the same 43ft wing as the Meteor F3. This proved to be unsatisfactory however as it was not strong enough to absorb the additional stresses of flight at higher speeds and was a factor in some early accidents. To solve this problem the wing of the F4 was clipped to 37ft 2in which reduced the wing area by 6% and improved the rate of role to 80 degress per second. The disadvantage of the clipping the wings was an increase in take-off and landing speeds and increased wing loading. There are no clear records as to the number of F4's which reached the RAF with the long span wings although it is likely that they would all have been modified in service. As described in the air speed records the aircraft used by the high speed flight did not have clipped wings, although they also would probably been modified later when they were transferred to operational squadrons.

EE549 - Note the lack of antenna, polished appearance and distinctive canopy.

The first and possibly only F4 to have a stretched fuselage was RA382. The thirty inch extension aft of the ammunition bay carried an extra 95 gallons of fuel and allowed Gloster to reduce the amount of Ballast required in the nose. While the longer fuselage improved stability it also shifted the center of gravity and created pitch instability when all the ammunition was expended, this was eventually cured by fitting the tail section from the Gloster's G.42 fighter which never went into production. This combination of the stretched fuselage and new tail formed the basis of the Meteor F8.

F4's took part in the first serious trials of operational air-to-air refuelling and also became the first jet powered drone aircraft when Flight Refuelling Ltd (Now part of Cobham PLC) modified a considerable number of obsolete F4's into remote controlled target drones designated as U15's.