My name is Martin Scholes. I like writing reviews on Ciao. I am married, we have a cockatiel and a c...
My name is Martin Scholes. I like writing reviews on Ciao. I am married, we have a cockatiel and a cat. And a growing African Grey. Who orders the cat around!
Member since:06.12.2003
Reviews:334
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The Meteor, The Ultimare Profile, is a very well produced programme.
It tells the full story of how the Gloster Meteor came about and how it was created.
The Gloster Meteor was proposed in the summer of 1940 and it was the very first jet aircraft that was flown by the Allied air forces during World War 2.
Surprising though this might seem, this video was the first video to be made about this extremely important military aircraft. It follows the story of the Gloster Meteor from the very first days on the drawing board (literally, in this instance) through testing and through to the first test flights and the years of service with the RAF as a front line fighter plane.
The creation of this video led to an important discovery, some extensive colour footage of Sir Frank Writtle, Britain's very own pioneer of jet planes, and some early footage of the aircraft being flown for the first test flights is also shown. We are shown production line footage too, and other incidental "backroom stuff" that we do not often see. All very stirring stuff, really.
Colour footage is shown of the E28/39 prototype and we are shown the first flight of the Meteor which took place in early 1943. Incidentally, this shows how war can spur on the technological advances when the very survival of one's nation is at stake, as the Gloster Meteor took under three years to get from drawing board into the air.
There's some nice colour film of the first all-Gloster Meteor squadron, 616 Squadron, and some post World War 2 film is shown, one interesting piece is a mock attack by Meteor fighter jets against a flight of USAF B-29 bombers, simulating a Russian nuclear attack on the United Kingdom.
There are many different versions of the Gloster Meteor shown (many more than I could have ever imagined) and there are interviews with members of 616 Squadron. The two important ones are with Derek "Dixie" Dean and Dennis Barry.
Much to my amazement the programme pointed out that Gloster Meteor fighter jets are actually still being flown to this very day, used by the test pilots at Martin Baker to test aircraft ejector seats.
The video is produced by DD video (www.ddvideo.co.uk). As this was a gift, I do not know the current price, but Ciao's price check service should be able to provide these details.
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