Date:	Wednesday 13 July 1949
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor FR.5
Owner/operator:	C(A) MoS/Gloster Aircraft Co Ltd
Registration:	VT347
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Moreton Valence, Gloucestershire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	RAF Moreton Valence, Gloucestershire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor FR.5 prototype: Taken on charge by C(A) MoS (Controller (Aircraft) Ministry of Supply at Gloster Aircraft Ltd 28-3-1949. This was an experimental fighter-reconnaissance version and only one prototype was produced. The design was an attempt to eliminate previous icing-up of reconnaissance cameras installed on earlier F.Mk III and F.Mk 4 aircraft. The airframe, VT347, was a converted F.Mk 4 and had two F.36 vertical cameras installed in the rear fuselage and one F.24 oblique camera installed in the nose. The nose camera could be set on the ground for left, right or forward oblique photography through three windows in a modified nose section.

Written off (destroyed) 13-7-1949 on first test flight: Pilot executed a high-g pull-out over the airfield at Moreton Valence, Gloucestershire and centre section structure failed, leading to total disintegration in flight. Pilot killed

Crew:
Mr Rodney Dryland DFC, Moreton Valence acting CTP (Chief Test Pilot) - killed 13-7-1949

Modifications, to strengthen the fuselage, were incorporated into future designs as a result of the accident.

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.515
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
4. http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/memorial/entry.php?id=193
5. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/aeromilitaria/Aeromilitaria_2010.pdf p 35
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_Meteor#Variants
7. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235045907-the-unique-but-ill-fated-meteor-pr5/
8. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/rodney-dryland-24-cv18r1
9. http://www.aviation-history.com/gloster/meteor.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Moreton_Valence

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
21-Aug-2013 20:44	Nepa	Added
10-Feb-2018 11:14	TigerTimon	Updated [Aircraft type]
17-Jul-2023 08:06	Nepa	Updated [[Aircraft type]]