Aviodrome Theme Park Museum Gets Gloster Meteor!

On 17 February 2009 a Gloster Meteor F.8 was donated to the Aviodrome Theme Park Museum. at Lelystad Airport. It was donated by mr. Aart van Wijk, a former Meteor pilot. The Meteor F.8 served at the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (KLu) until it was phased out in 1958 when it was succeeded by the Hawker Hunter. The Meteor donated to the museum was built by Fokker (c/n 6466) and supplied to the KLu in March 1953 with registration I-187. When the Meteor F.8’s were phased out it escaped scrapping because it was used as an exhibit plane near the pilot’s monument on Soesterberg airbase. Here it was displayed with its current registration I-147 until 1995. From 1995 it was stored at the airbase, but two years ago it went to the company ATN Aircraft Division at Hoogeveen airport as part of the payment for restoration work on a Tiger Moth.

Meteor F.8 I-147 photographed outside the T2 hangar at Lelystad airport.

The Meteor was taken over by mr. van Wijk in December last year. After a thorough cleaning of the outside of the plane, the Meteor is temporary displayed outside the large T2 hangar of the Aviodrome museum. It will be finally restored as a static exhibit.

The same I-147 photographed in 1984 at Soesterberg.