WL405 to Bruntingthorpe
WL405 has been sold to Mike Davey and has moved to Hooton Park to join WK914 which is also being restored to ground running status as resources permit. It came with a large quantity of spares including an F8 rear fuselage and F8 nose cone which frees up the FR9 nosecone that he already had and allows it to be used on WL405. The original rear fuselage was scrapped some years ago so the spare and never allocated F8 rear fuselage will replace it. This configuration, incorrectly called T7 1/2 is used on Martin-Bakers Meteors and was also applied to IAF Meteor T7's, as it significantly improves their performance and flight performance.
Mike will borrow the forward fuselage and FR9 nose of WL405 for the WK914 project short term and put together a hybrid meteor with the centre section, wings and tail of WK914. The FR9 nose is correct for WL405 as it carried one with TV camera while flying with the RAE Weopons flight in 1963 at Farnborough, He also has the outer wings of WL405 which were stored at Duxford.
 WL405 cockpit with FR9 Nose |  WL405 Hooton Park, Feb 2010 |  Leaving Bruntingthorpe |
 Mike in flight |
The airframe was purchased from the Meteor Flight in early 2009 by Martin Garrett initially moving to Bruntingthorpe where a small amount of restoration work was carried out. These earlier photos were taken showing it leaving Yatesbury and while in storage with the Meteor Flight were it still served as a useful reference structure.
 RAE shield on WL405 |
 Rear Cockpit, Feb 2009 |  Bruntingthorpe, New home |  Yatesbury 25th Feb 09 |
 WL405 Center Section |
 F8 Tail for WL405 |  Loading Up, Feb 2009 |  Loaded Up, Feb 2009 |
 Yatesbury, Aug 2007 |  F8 Tail in storage |  Yatesbury, Sept 2003 |  Farnborough, Sept 1963 |
Service History
| Date | Notes |
| 7th July 1952 | Taken on charge by 33 MU. |
| 28th August 1952 | Issued to RAF Hemswell Bomber command. |
| 10th Sept 1954 | Station Flight, RAF Wittering |
| 19th Nov 1954 | 231 OCU, RAF Merryfield |
| 30th Nov 1956 | To RAF Hemswell Bomber command on communications duties. |
| 16th May 1960 | Cat 3 Accident. Repaired by 31st August but placed in storage at 5 MU |
| 13th Sept 1962 | To Ministry of Aviation Farnborough on loan. Sale transfer in 1965. |
| 9th Sept 1963 | RAE Weapons Flight, Farnborough (See photo above) |
| 1987 | To Martin Baker (as source of spares?) |
The forward fuselage and center-section of WL405 arrived at Yatesbury in November 2001. Its delivery was used as a training exercise by the RAF St Athan Aircraft Transportation and Recovery Flight. It had previously been in long term storage with Martin-Baker where it had also been a source of spares. It was in excellent condition having been stored undercover since retirement from service.
The shield on both sides of WL405's cockpit 'Alis Apta Scientia' is not quite correct for the Royal Aircraft Establishment, the last known operator of WL405 as it should read Alis Apta Scientis (Ready for the wings of knowing). Its not in evidence in the last inflight shot of the aircraft in Sept 1963 so could have been added after it became an instructional airframe.
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| The nose and center section before unloading and RAF St Athan' A.R.T.S team at work. |
Updates
March 2010: I've finally posted the latest images that Mike sent me after the aquistion of WL405 from Martin Garrett.