Great pix of the Meteor. It was an interesting aircraft - the first jet
fighter to be used by the Allies in WWII - and the only one to be able
to perform the "Zurabatic Cartwheel". The maneuver was invented and
flown by Janusz Zurakowski, a veteran of the WWII air war and later a
test pilot. An all around interesting person.
A description of the maneuver is below...
"At the 1951 Farnborough Airshow, Żurakowski demonstrated a new
aerobatics manoeuvre, the "Zurabatic Cartwheel", in which he suspended
the Gloster Meteor G-7-1 prototype he was flying, in a vertical
cartwheel. "This jet manoeuvre was the first new aerobatic in 20
years."[6] The cartwheel used the dangerously asymmetric behaviour the
Meteor had with one engine throttled back. The manoeuvre started with a
vertical climb to 4,000 ft by which point the aircraft had slowed to
only 80 mph. Cutting the power of one engine caused the Meteor to pivot.
When the nose was pointing downwards, the second engine was throttled
back and the aircraft continued to rotate through a further 360 degrees
on momentum alone having lost nearly all vertical velocity. Carrying out
the cartwheel and recovering from it with entering an inverted spin
(which the Meteor could not be brought out of) required great skill."
The Wiki on Zurakowski is here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janusz_%C5%BBurakowski
-p
On 10/19/2011 2:37 AM, Godfrey DiGiorgi wrote:
Another lovely 1950s jet from the Duxford Air Show: the Gloster Meteor ...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdgphoto/6258219856/lightbox/
or
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdgphoto/6258219856/
In pictures, this reminds me very much of a 1950s Sci Fi movie for some reason,
but it was beautiful in flight and seemed that the pilot was enjoying tossing
it about handily.
Godfrey
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