The Meteor was designed to meet Specification F.9/40, the first such British specification to be issued for a combat aircraft using turbojet engines. The eight original F.9/40 airframes were used to test several different types of British gas turbines including the Rover-built Power Jets W2B, the parent design of the Rolls-Royce Welland with which the Meteor I was fitted; the Metropolitan Vickers F.2/1, the first British axial-flow unit to fly (13 November 1943); the Halford H.1, the predecessor to the de Havilland Goblin; and the Rolls-Royce Trent, the first turboshaft engine to fly. Actually the 6530kg Halford-engined F.9/40 was the first version of the Meteor to fly (on 5 March 1943) as the W2B engines (4360kg) installed in another F.9/40 in July 1942 were not ready for flying until June 1943.
The first production version of the Meteor (the F.1) was powered by two 7400kg Rolls-Royce Welland 1 turbojet engines and had a cockpit canopy that was side-hinged. Only 20 of this first version were built, first going to No 616 Squadron, RAF and were used on operational sorties against German V-1 flying-bombs. The F.3 followed the Mk 1 into production and was the first quantity production version. The standard engines were two 8720kg Rolls-Royce Derwent Is, although the first 15 Mk 3s were fitted with Wellands. Sliding cockpit hoods were standard and provision was made for a long-range fuselage drop tank. The last 15 were fitted with the lengthened engine nacelles standardised on the Mk 4. A few were used operationally in Germany during the closing stages of World War II. The Meteor was the only Allied jet-propelled aircraft to go into operational service during this
war, but it never met a German Messerschmitt iVIe 262 in combat.
Post-war types began with the F.4, the first example flying on 12 April 1945. Power was provided by two Derwent 5 engines and the wing span was reduced to 11.33m to improve the rate of roll. Other features included long engine nacelles, pressure cabin, and fittings for bombs and rocket projectiles. An aircraft of this version set up world speed records on 7 November 1945 and 7 September 1946 of 975km/h and 991km/h respectively. The Meteor T.7 was a two-seat training version of the Mk 4, with the forward fuselage lengthened by 0.76m to accommodate tandem cockpits under a continuous canopy. No armament was carried. The first T.7 flew on 19 March 1948.
Many variants were built subsequently, including the F.8 (the major production version, first flown on 12 October 1948 and the only British jet fighter used operationally during the Korean War, flown by the RAAF), which established international point-to-point records on London-Copenhagen, Copenhagen-London and London-Copenhagen-London in 1950 and in the following year set up a new international speed record over a 1,000km closed circuit of 822.2km/h; FR.9 fighter-reconnaissance version of the Mk 8; PR. 10 unarmed version for high-altitude reconnaissance; NF.11 two-seat night fighter, the design of which was undertaken by Armstrong Whitworth and first flown in May 1950; and NF.12, 13 and 14 night fighters (night-fighter production by Armstrong Whitworth totalling 547 aircraft). British production of the Meteor totalled about 3,550 aircraft, more than 1,100 of which were F.8s. Conversions included the TT.20 high-speed target-towing Meteor and U.15, 16 and 21 radio-controlled drones developed by Flight Refuelling Ltd. Meteors were also exported in considerable numbers for service with the armed forces of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Israel, the Netherlands and Syria.
