THE SKUNK WORKS HELPED DESIGN A HIGH-ALTITUDE SPYPLANE FOR THE UK

In a little-known development in the mid-1950s, the UK produced its own high-altitude spyplane with assistance from the US. The Meteor jet fighter was modified with longer wings and re-engined with two P&W J57-31s, that were  being used to power the RB-57D and the U-2. It was designated the Meteor PR19, and the Lockheed Skunk Works helped British aircraft company Armstrong Whitworth to design its wings.  

Well actually, they didn’t, and the PR19 never existed. But were you fooled? It’s 1st April, after all. To mark the day, I think it’s worth recalling how a British plastic aircraft modeller with a fertile imagination published a spoof spyplane story that amused some readers, confused others, and fooled quite a few more.

Kit Spackman is a Brit who is a leading member of the “What If?” modeling group that modifies plastic airplane kits into various versions of real aircraft, that were so unlikely that they were never actually built. In 2008, he decided to add the long wings from a U-2 kit to a model of the Meteor NF14 night fighter, turning it into a high-flyer. The Meteor was Britain’s first jet fighter, entering service in 1944 and produced in large numbers and multiple versions over the next two decades. The last version was the TT20 for target towing. But there was no 19^th version – until Kit invented one.

Kit’s ‘history’ of the PR19 was fully 8,000 words long. It mixed fact and fiction in credible way, although there were clues that would cause knowlegable aircraft buffs to see through the story. Kit wrote that twelve were built aircraft and they entered service in 1956. They were flown from RAF Watton by No 13 Squadron – both of which existed in real life. At the same time, CIA U-2s were flying flew Wiesbaden, Germany (as indeed they were). The Meteors could fly higher than the U-2s, but the latter had much longer range (it certainly went a long way). The UK and the US shared information from flights over the USSR (they did indeed co-operate). When US overflights ceased following the shootdown of Gary Powers, the still-secret RAF machines continued spying on the USSR.

The story continued with the Meteors being re-engined with the higher-powered J75 engine (as the U-2 actually were). They ranged far and wide, and began to do air sampling (which was a secondary U-2 mission). There were accidents which mirrored some of those which befell the U-2. Later, the Meteors were re-engined with a TF33 turbofan, which actually did power the USAF’s RB-57F high altitude twinjets. In the mid-1970s, the RAF declassified the Meteor PR19, and they began performing spectacularly at airshows. Before retirement of the last remaining aircraft in 1985, a few of them received the American ASARS-2 imaging radar (another U-2 reality).   

Kit published his article on the “What If?” online bulletin board. But it was soon reproduced on other websites, and gained a wide readership. I was contacted by a number of puzzled readers, asking if it was true. Kit was even contacted by someone working for US intelligence, who was inclined to believe it. (In case that shakes your confidence in American open source analysis, that person was on TDY to a three-letter agency, and not a regular spook).

Kit has made a number of scale models of the Meteor PR19, representing the various modifications described in his fictional account. Last year, I finally met him at the annual show of the International Plastic Modellers Society (IPMS) in the UK, where he was showing a couple of his magnificent mockups.“Any aircraft can be improved by fitting longer wings and/or a longer fuselage”, he says. “The backstory can always be changed to fit the model”.