Gloster Meteor T7 (T Mk. VII) - Trainer
Contrary to popular opinion, the Meteor T7 was not a private venture by Gloster. It did in fact originate from Air Staff Operational Requirement OR/238 of December 1946 which called for, "A Two-Seater Dual Control Version of the Meteor F Mark IV". Conversion of the airframe was to be as simple as possible with the aircraft to be flown from the front seat if flown with just one occupant. Performance was to be as similar to the Meteor IV as possible. No armament was required although a camera gun was to be fitted controlled from the front (pupil's) cockpit. Notably, the Air Staff stipulated that ejection systems for both crew members was, "Desirable but not essential".Gloster set to work on the design of a tandem two-seater following receipt of specification T.1/47 in February 1947. They increased the forward fuselage by 30 inches and installed a second cockpit aft of the existing structure. A mock-up of the two-seater was constructed and made available to the RAF for initial inspection which occurred at Hucclecote in March 1947. Following the viewing a number of areas were highlighted for attention which included the addition of a retractable gyro gunsight, raising of the rear seat by 2 inches and changes to the rear instrument panel to improve legroom. Armour protection was initially excluded from the original specification although it was retained in the production trainer as it formed an integral part of the aircraft structure.
The only change that affected the external appearance of the mock-up resulted from the RAF's need for two direct vision (DV) openings in the port side panels of the canopy. This led Gloster to fit one opening panel in the side of the front windshield panel and the second in the side of the canopy itself for the instructor's use. These and other items were actioned prior to a number of further mock-up inspections to verify the revisions to the T1/47 design. Early in 1947 a contract was awarded for the conversion of two F Mk IV's into the trainer prototypes at a cost of £27,000 per aircraft. The two prototypes serialled VW410 and VW411 were created from EE530 and EE573 which had been returned to Moreton Vallance for modification in November 1947.
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Although Gloster's private Meteor F4 demonstator G-AIDC was converted to T7 standard as G-AIDC, it was not a prototype T7 and did not participate in the T7 development program for the RAF instead being sent by Gloster on a series of tours to spearhead further export sales of the Meteor. G-AIDC had been Gloster's demonstrator and was written off in May 1947 while being flown by a Belgian pilot. After its accident it's remains were returned to England and stored at Hucclecote with a decision later being made to build another demonstrator this time based on the new RAF T7 design. Registered G-AKPK it flew before either of the prototype T7's on the 19th March, 1948. Painted a smart carmine red colour scheme it was distinguishable from the RAF T7 in its lack of direct vision windows.
The prototype RAF Meteor T7, VW410 first flew on 26 October 1948 and was retained by the company to head the test programme, while it had the same engines as the F8 the removal of armament reduced its weight by almost 1,000 lbs resulting in improved takeoff and climb performance. 682 T7's were built with many of them serving as squadron hacks after they were superceeded by more modern training aircraft.
One of the great strengths of the Meteor design was its modularity. While it was originally designed this way to facilitate dispersed production during wartime it also made it very easy to transport, salvage and repair. A good example of another benefit is the fitting of the improved F8 tail section to some late production T7's including some operated by the Israeli Air Force (IAF). Martin-Bakers Meteors which are still used for ejection seat testing are also fitted with the high speed F8 tail which has often led to the spurious designation T7 1/2 even if the new tail does considerably improve the types performance.