Gloster Meteor F.1 V-1
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Description
In late 1940, the British Air Ministry presented the Gloster Aircraft Company with the specifications for a jet-powered fighter. March of 1943 saw the prototype, equipped with the De Havilland's H.1 engine, succeed on its first test flight. Subsequent testing led to the mounting of two Rolls Royce engines, which gave the Gloster Meteor F-1 an impressive top speed of 668km/h.
At about the same time, the German side was developing a frightful new weapon. The Fieseler Fi103 was equipped with the first pulse jet engine in history, flew at a top speed of 640km/h and carried a 850kg of explosives. Known as the V-1, this unmanned flying bomb was launched from a steam driven catapult and guided by a gyroscope and a small nose mounted propeller. Direction, altitude and distance were monitored in flight, until a fixed distance was reached, at which point it would drop and explode on the surface below. V-1 attacks lasted until March of 1945, by which time about 5800 bombs had wreaked heavy damage in London and the surrounding area.
On August 4th of 1944, while flying his Meteor on jammed, he recorded the first victory over a V-1 by using the tip of his wing to knock the weapon off course, where it crashed in an unpopulated area. The innovative development of both the Meteor and the V-1 laid the foundation for future jet fighters and missile weaponry. -
Specifications
- Discontinued True