Martin-Baker's Flying Meteors

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Cacophonix

Martin-Baker's Flying Meteors

#1 Post by Cacophonix » Fri Feb 10, 2017 10:14 am

I thought that all marks of the Meteor still flying were in the private hands or on the air show circuit but was delighted to learn the following...


Adhering strictly to the principle that if it isn’t broke why fix it, Martin-Baker is conducting high-speed ejection seat tests for 21st-century combat aircraft using derivatives of the same Gloster Meteor family the company first used for ejection tests 70 years ago.

In spite of its considerable vintage, the sturdy British attack aircraft has all the attributes required for a stable, high-speed test platform, says Andy Gent, Martin-Baker’s head of flying and chief pilot. “From a test perspective the Meteor is ideal. The tail boom is fairly long and the fin is not very high. The engines are also spaced out a fair way out along the wing, so the efflux from the ejection test and exhaust from the gun and rocket motor isn’t potentially going down the engine intakes,” he says.

Based at Martin-Baker’s Chalgrove, England, test facility, the fleet is made up of two Meteors, WA638 and WL419, both of which have been with the company since the 1960s. “They are doing the job so why would you ever go through the heartache of getting another aircraft?” says Gent. “If you did want another aircraft for testing you would probably want it to be a twin because we probably lose enough single-engine aircraft after takeoff through bird strikes. If you go through the expense of all the conversion for ejection-seat testing, get airborne and suck a red kite down the intake, then it’s an immediate ejection,” he adds.

Marketing Director Andrew Martin notes the company is one of only a handful that performs airborne ejection tests, and that the Meteor will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. “It is a tough thing to evaluate, and right now while we have these phenomenal assets we are not going to really think about a replacement in great detail,” he says. With the final retirement of the last Royal Air Force (RAF)-operated aircraft in the target towing role in the early 1980s, Martin-Baker acquired a large stock of spares and Rolls-Royce Derwent 8 turbojets. Because of that and the ample remaining airframe life, the company is no rush to find a successor.

Gent, a former RAF combat pilot who also flies vintage warbirds, says the Meteor “in handing terms is very late World War II. It’s not as light as a feather like a Hawk or a Hunter, but once you get above 350 kt. it starts to firm up a bit, but is perfectly flyable.” High-speed ejection tests are generally conducted at 450 kt. and 200 ft. “Once it gets going it is actually a lively airplane, and if you park the throttles in the top left-hand corner and leave them there you get 500 kt. out of it, which is a fair clip,” he adds.

For a typical test, the pilot selects the seat-firing master switch located in the top right-hand side of the cockpit control panel. The selection activates the gun trigger button on the top of the control column, which is used to fire the ejection seat. “The trigger gets pulled and the release gets pressed at the same time,” says Gent. “Once you have one of them pressed the red light comes on, which confirms that any more pressure and it will go.” Once the release system is activated “there is a bang and you definitely know the seat has gone!”

Martin-Baker’s long association with the Meteor started in 1946, a year after airborne-ejection-seat testing got underway in May 1945 using a Boulton Paul Defiant, a piston-engine night fighter and later target-towing aircraft. However, to test above the Defiant’s top speed of 300 mph, the company obtained a jet-power Meteor F Mk. 3 which was modified to carry the ejection seat in the ammunition bay behind the cockpit. The aircraft was used to conduct the first airborne dummy ejection in June 1946, and the following month, the first live ejection test in the UK. The volunteer was Bernard “Benny” Lynch, an experimental fitter, who went on to make 16 ejection tests.

In the early 1950s the company acquired the first two-seat Meteor T Mk. 7 which was later modified with the “high speed” aft fuselage and empennage of the F Mk. 8. The hybrid configuration, which improved directional stability and control in the event of engine failure and asymmetric power, is standard for the current test fleet. “You don’t get the situation whereby, if you leave the air brakes out with the gear and flap down, it spears into the ground,” says Gent.

The current primary test aircraft, the all-black WA638, originally entered service with the company in 1962. After an initial 15-year phase in which it was used for more than 500 rocket and nonrocket-power ejection tests, it was placed in storage for a further 20 years. Restoration began in 1997, and the fully refurbished Meteor returned to flying duties again in 2001. The backup silver-and-Day-Glo orange airframe, WL419, was delivered in 1964 and has been used to conduct more than 200 ejection seat tests. 

Recent flight testing in 2016 has focused primarily on supporting design refinements to the US16E ejection seat for the F-35. The active Meteor also flew late last year to the French air force test site of Cazaux air base southwest of Bordeaux to conduct high-altitude ejection-seat activation tests.


http://aviationweek.com/air-combat-safe ... ing-strong

Image

They look to be in immaculate condition.

Caco

Sisemen

Re: Martin-Baker's Flying Meteors

#2 Post by Sisemen » Fri Feb 10, 2017 3:24 pm

Used to get them occasionally over Benson which was just down the road.

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