The Gloster Meteor was the first jet aircraft to enter Royal Air Force service and so holds a unique place in aviation history. This Meteor is an NF11 night fighter variant, and so was built not by Gloster but by Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company under licence at their Baginton Coventry plant in 1952.

Bearing the serial number WM167, initial delivery was to 228 Operational Conversion Unit in August 1952. This was the start of an unusual career, in that WM167 never saw squadron service. After one month she was transferred to 33 Maintenance Unit at RAF Colerne in Wiltshire. In 1954 she passed to RAF Leeming in Yorkshire. In 1960 she returned to 33 MU and then in January 1961 went to Armstrong Whitworth for modification to TT20 specification for equipment flight-trials and for target-towing trials at the Aeroplane and Armaments Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down.

By that stage only 559 hours of flying time had been accumulated – and a year long spell at Boscombe Down added just 20 hours to that tally.

Back in the hands of 33 Maintenance Unit, WM167 was prepared for delivery to the Flight Refuelling Company where she spent her final ten years of service towing experimental targets from Tarrant Rushton in Dorset and Llanbedr in Wales.

WM167 was declared surplus to requirements at Llanbedr in July 1975, and was purchased by well-known warbird collector Doug Arnold. Neil Williams flew her to Blackbushe from Farnborough, where at 1,408 flying hours she was converted back to NF11 standard and placed in long-term storage.

Brencham Historic Aircraft Company acquired WM167 for its growing collection in 1984, when she was put on to the UK Civilian Register as G-LOSM.

Hunter Wing acquired her from Brencham in 1989, and commissioned Jet Heritage to refurbish her to full flying status with civilian radios and self-contained electric start. This took 18 months and she first flew as G-LOSM in 1991.

Hunter Wing’s Meteor has been a well-loved feature at numerous UK and continental airshows ever since. You see her today in the authentic camouflage and unit markings of 141 Squadron, RAF Coltishall, with which her sister aircraft flew between 1951 and 1954.

Data (hours updated to 28th August 2003)