Subject: Re: Silly Week 2014
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "David Bailey" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2014 13:23:40 -0800

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
ARC Air - Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.arcair.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Bailey 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2014 11:59 AM
  Subject: Silly Week 2014

  "The GASSP-1 Meteor" 

  by Dave Bailey, aka "The Rat"

  Please include your ARC Discussion Forum Name with your submission 
  --------------------

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  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?

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  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.

         
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  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.

  "Dave Bailey"

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  Just delete any of the boxes below you don't need.....it's not important to include them.....they are there to give you an idea of the finished article.  It is best to limit your article to no more than 60 or so photos, so the finished webpage won't take too long to open.

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  Photos and text © by "Dave Bailey"

  -- 
  Dave Bailey