Meteor T.7 WL405 and F.8 WK914 projects update.

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16 years 2 months

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This is a very recent pic of the cockpit of WL405, under new ownership and late of Brunty, now at Hooton Park, Cheshire.

What's that funny-shaped nose on it? I hear you say. It's a PR-9 nose cone and represents the configuration in which this aircraft flew, from Farnborough, with a nose-mounted TV camera installed (though to what purpose I do not know). We are looking for the RH camera door for the nose section, if anyone has one or knows where we might find one.

There is a good photo of this aircraft in flight, with this nose fitted, on the Internet.

The current plan is to assemble Meteor (F.8, WK914) at Hooton in the spring and to fit the T.7 cockpit whilst the restoration on the F.8 cockpit is completed, indoors, on-site.
When this is done (hopefully in about a year) the noses will be swapped and WK914 will get her "proper" cockpit back. The cockpit of WL405 will probably then be put up for sale.

The centre section and some other parts from WL405, still at Brunty, will be collected from there in the next month or so and will be brought to Hooton also, and put into storage.

The original outer wings from WL405 were collected from Duxford in the New Year. A grateful Thank-You to the lads there for getting in touch, their donation of the items and also their help loading them on the day.

Also of note is the emergence of the original seat for WK914, which was at, of all places, Swindon Laser Quest. The manager there googled the serial number on the seat and got in touch, saying he wanted the seat to go to its rightful place - back in the cockpit of the jet, so they donated it to the project. A big thank-you to him also.

Anon.

Original post

Member for

17 years 1 month

Posts: 625

Great to see your progress.

Hi Mike
Great to see some pics of your progress, keep us all updated, and let us know when you hope to collect the rest of her from Brunty, and we will try to be there.
Best wishes to all,
Ritch and Max.

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Don't believe that there are any spare panels at NAM, but I know that you'd be more than welcome to take measurements from VZ608! :)

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16 years 7 months

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The manager there googled the serial number on the seat and got in touch, saying he wanted the seat to go to its rightful place - back in the cockpit of the jet, so they donated it to the project. A big thank-you to him also.
Anon.

It's really great to hear that things like that still happen.
Nice update.

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19 years 2 months

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What will happen to the rest of WL405?

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16 years 2 months

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Meteor Update

Now there's a job for your new restoration facility Ritch - go to Newark and measure up the camera door and then make one for us:D

WL405 is missing her original rear fuselage and tail feathers, a new F.8 (E1/44-type) tail being substituted, which, of course, isn't correct. Were they present then the whole aircraft would stay together and be displayed at Hooton Park.

However, with not much likelihood of an early rounded tail being available, the decision has broadly been made that the cockpit would be sold to defray expenses and that the remaining components, common to the F.8, would be used as a source of parts for WK914.

For myself, the ultimate aim was to get '914 taxyable under its own power - and I think this is quite achievable. With the acquisition by myself of so many new Meteor parts these last few years, it is not an unreasonable expectation that, in hands other than my own, WK914 might even fly again.

A critical component for this is a decent centre-section and whilst WK914's is OK and recoverable with a great deal of work, the centre section from WL405 allows us the luxury of a spare, should 914's prove, ultimately, to be unsuitable for flight.

Yes, I know it's a long shot, but, with us having what could be one of the largest Meteor spares holdings in the UK - and possibly the world -, with the right organisation behind it, WK914 may yet take to the skies again.

So, Jetstream Man, the short answer to your question is; used as spares for WK914.

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19 years 2 months

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Superb, thank you very much. All the best.

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17 years 1 month

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Why not?

Hi Mike

Re "Now there's a job for your new restoration facility Ritch - go to Newark and measure up the camera door and then make one for us".

Can anyone at NAM get me a couple of photo's of the door? one external and one internal, and I will give it "a good coat of looking at!" as they used to sat when I was just a lad!!

No promisses, but the least I can do is look into it for you.

Best wishes,
Ritch.

Member for

18 years 2 months

Posts: 7,742

It's unlikely that I will be going over this week so I will struggle to take any pictures myself but I'll see if I can get anyone else to sort something out.

Just another thought; in Anon's pictures the aircraft seems to have one panel already fixed, would this mirror the other panel for size and design? :confused:

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16 years 2 months

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Nose panel/door

To try and answer your query Twin Otter, do you mean the access door on the side of the nose section?

The access door is only present on the RH side of the actual nose, the LH just being a flat window behind which the camera would be sat.

There was a window in the access door but, because this window was flat the contours of the door would have been quite complex.

As you can see from the pic of the RH side of the nose of WL405, although the nose cone is curved, the frame of the actual door is slightly flattened representing the transition from the fully-curved fuselage side to the flat window. The rest of the transition, so to speak, being present in the actual skin of the door.

This means that the job of making an accurate door would be somewhat difficult. However, that said, it is more important to seal the opening with a simple representation of the door than to try to construct one faithful to the original contours.

Of course, should someone be determined to do an accurate job building a door it would be sod's law that an original one would turn up just as the last coat of paint was applied:mad:

Good luck with that one Ritch:D

Anon.

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20 years 3 months

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Anon,

Good luck with this. Its certainly an exciting prospect to see another F8 get a full restoration, especially as you intend to get things running again.

.... just wished I lived closed to lend a hand!

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18 years 2 months

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Sorry for any confusion - I hadn't realised the access door was only on one side. Attached is the only detailed picture I have of VZ608's nose and that's from the wrong side, but you can make out the top of the panel edge in the picture.

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Door shape

Thanks Twin Otter,

You can see from your photo the odd contours of the door, even though you can hardly see the door itself.

Appreciate any help you can offer on this.

Work on the door is unlikely to have begun before April so I'll have a closer look and get a few more photos when I visit Newark Museum for the aerojumble then.

Anon.

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 997

I worked on 405 when I was an apprentice back at Farnborough. In fact I helped make the false rear spar between the aft part of the wings.
Nice to see that it will be near Manchester I will come over to visit it when it arrives!

Rgds Cking