Did anyone see the Meteor?

[amateur51]

I'm three episodes in now and still don't have a clue what it's about, but it's beautifully filmed and acted nonetheless.

Bit like your everyday life, I'd have thought Mr Pee

[Mr Pee]

Bit like your everyday life, I'd have thought Mr Pee

[3rd Viennese School]

I saw the Meteor! Well, the film anyway.
And I had the book when I was younger but havent got it now.

Hope this helps.

3VS

[Chris Newman]

I flew in a Meteor when I was a CCF cadet. We were camping at RAF Leuchars in Fifeshire, next to the St Andrews Golf Course. Our regular cadet flights were in Chipmunk trainers. By fluke two of the available Chipmunks developed faulty magnetos and as there were several school squads on the drome all expecting flights it was decided to send a plane to get the requisite replacements and spares. For some reason the spares were all stored at RAF Middle Wallop near Salisbury and a name was taken out of a hat. I was the lucky lad. After an early breakfast we flew from Scotland to Wiltshire in a Gloster Meteor (the small twin jet plane designed by Whittle that saw service in WW2) which had been converted for bombing and reconnaisance training; I was squeezed into the bomb aimers's/observer's bubble under the nose of the plane, lying on my stomach with a parachute pack on my back and my own nose about two foot above the runway. Heaven knows what Madam Health & Safety would say nowadays but I wore my uniform and three sets of dungarees to keep warm. We flew South with little event barring a fabulous view of the Pennines and Midlands. What the crew had not told me was that Middle Wallop was a grass runway. It certainly was spooky seeing the earth rush up to meet you. A cup of tea and we were back up north. I was back in time for lunch.

[Mr Pee]

Wow, Chris, what a treat for a young lad. Despite spending 22 years in the RAF the only jet I ever got a ride in was a Tristar!

I know Middle Wallop very well- my previous stepfather was in the Army Air Corps, and lived in the nearby hamlet of Quarley. He owned two ex-AAC flying machines- an Auster aircraft, as well as a Skeeter helicopter, both of which he kept at Wallop. I have often taken off and landed there, on the grass runway that you mention, but never at the sort of speed you would have done in the Meteor. I have also visited Leuchars a number of times in my RAF career. I know that if either the Skeeter or Auster had done the trip from Fife to Hampshire, we would most certainly not have been back in time for lunch. We might just have made it by dinner time if we had a following wind- although my stepdad did have the distinction of flying an Auster in the England-Australia air race, leaving Gatwick on the 18 December 1969, and arriving in Sydney on the 4th Jan 1970. Total flying time 141 hours and 10 minutes, 13,400 miles covered. The Auster in question is now exhibited at the Duxford Museum.