GASSP-1 Meteor

[The Rat]

The GASSP-1



The assembled crowd of engineers, ground crew, pilots, and general gawkers, held their collective breath as the rapidly growing speck wobbled toward the airfield like a drunken duck. At almost the last second a landing skid was lowered from the fuselage, and more wobbling commenced. A sigh of relief escaped a few dozen lips as it finally touched down, gradually slowed, and stopped.



The canopy was flung open by what appeared to be a madman, a man with almost murderous intent in his eyes and shaking face. "THAT BLOODY THING IS A DEATHTRAP!' he screamed at nobody in particular, "It should be melted down and the slag buried! I spent a good portion of that flight upside down, and then only because it was easier to keep straight and level that way. Now I need a drink to discover if my stomach is where it should be!" He stormed off in the general direction of the Officer's mess, and not a soul dared get in his way.

The engineers looked the most embarrassed, after all, it was their creation. They knew that there would be some handling differences from the Meteor III that the aircraft was based on, but the full extent was not known. That was why we have test pilots, right?




In an attempt to be the first to break the sound barrier, a plan was conceived to make some quick and drastic modifications to a Gloster Meteor. It was known as the GASSP, for Gloster Aircraft SuperSonic Project. The wing sections inboard of the engine nacelles were removed, but the internal arrangement of the structure meant that this gave the wings a slight anhedral, compromising stability in the roll axis. While a shorter wing produced less parasitic drag, this was almost negated by the increased induced drag of a lower aspect ratio. Stability problems were not helped by the lack of modification to the control surfaces, particularly the empennage. The now almost full-span ailerons contributed to a tendency to over control, and a much lighter touch was required. Compression effects between the engine nacelles and the fuselage caused some slight but noticeable buffeting, and the increased power afforded by the Derwent V engines simply accentuated every problem. The removal of landing gear, in order to save weight, was the least of anyone's worries. The final result was painted in a bright red to aid in tracking, and once an Avro Lincoln had been modified as a carrier aircraft the trials were ready to commence. Squadron Leader Anthony 'Chalky' White was selected as the first test pilot.

The result was a rather attractive aircraft which utterly failed to live up to the old maxim of "if it looks right, it flies right". This one merely flew between intervals of terror inducing instability.




A decision was made that there should be at least some semblance of a debriefing, so they headed to the mess in order to gain whatever knowledge they could. As they filed in the pilot was hoisting a tankard with one hand and scribbling notes with the other, and doing a lot of muttering. Before they could apologise and hope to smooth things over, a figure entered rapidly and beamed a smile that almost lit up the room. He had just come from one of the ground stations that had been tracking the flight with equipment that could determine the exact speed of the aircraft. "Sir," he said directly to the pilot, "Do you know what you were doing at 4 minutes and 3 seconds into the flight?"

A sip of beer was gulped in a leisurely manner, and a wistful look took over his face. "Well," he replied, "Since it went upside-down almost immediately, and it took a good 5 minutes to correct, I suppose I was hanging in the straps." "Indeed you were Sir, but that means you broke Mach 1 while you were inverted!" There were some cheers, but they were quickly stifled by Chalky's icy and accusing glare. Another gulp. "Then I suppose we should celebrate," he said nonchalantly, "Drinks all around." Then jerking a thumb toward the engineers he said "And this lot is buying."




It was October 15, 1947. It would later be discovered that the Bell X-1 had broken the sound barrier the day before, but the GASSP Meteor could rightly claim to be the first jet powered aircraft to achieve the feat in level, albeit inverted, flight. Further modifications were attempted in order to correct the problems with it, but before any new flights could take place it was lost in a catastrophic fire. The RAF has persistently denied rumours that Squadron Leader White was seen in the vicinity of the hangar at the time.




This is the venerable Airfix Meteor III, and the reworking is fairly obvious. The inner wing panels have been removed, and in my haste to get everything together I failed to notice that there was a distinct droop, resulting in an anhedral. Oh well, back stories exist to explain mistakes as much as justify the idea (voice of experience speaking), so what you see is what you get. Primed with Tamiya Fine White, brush painted with Model Master Guards Red, and it took quite a few coats.

I would still like to pursue further developments, a later mark swept-wing variant will eventually hit the bench.

[JayBee]

Umm!
Where does the main undercarriage go? 

[The Rat]

Umm!
Where does the main undercarriage go? 

Paragraph 1: "At almost the last second a landing skid was lowered from the fuselage..." 

[Captain Canada]

How does a skid skid to a stop ?



She's a beauty Rat ! I had to read the whole thing just to figure out what was diferent !

Looks awesome in those colours.

[PR19_Kit]

How does a skid skid to a stop ?

Friction?

[kerick]

How does a skid skid to a stop ?



She's a beauty Rat ! I had to read the whole thing just to figure out what was diferent !

Looks awesome in those colours.

Perilously!

[Rheged]

How does a skid skid to a stop ?

Barrier as on straight deck aircraft carriers? A giant eiderdown at the end of the landing strip? sand trap?

It would be interesting to see the launch trolley for this mighty machine!

[Sticky Fingers]

That backstory should've been part of a British version of The Right Stuff.
The Proper Material.

[NARSES2]

Wonderfull sir