Meteor Boys
True Tales from the Operators of Britain's First Jet Fighter: From 1944 to Date
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Meteor Boys
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Narrated by:
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Roger Davis
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By:
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Steve Bond
About this listen
Through the firsthand experiences of pilots and ground crew, the author of Javelin Boys chronicles the history of the RAF’s first jet-engine aircraft. As Britain’s first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor has had a remarkably varied and lengthy life. But while many books have focused on its development and service history, the time has come to hear the personal experiences of its air and ground crews.
By interviewing more than 30 veterans, author and Meteor veteran Steve Bond has written an incredibly detailed insight into this iconic aircraft, which is supported by anecdotes and accounts from those who knew it best. One example is Alan McDonald, who described the Meteor as “a bit unforgiving if you got it wrong, as many pilots found out to their cost, especially on one engine, but I must admit I got to like it very much - it was a great adrenaline rush”.
Alongside these entertaining anecdotes are details of the Meteor’s origins and developments. Starting with the first deliveries in 1944 working through to the present day, Bond documents the diverse role that the Meteor has had - from operations against the V1 and photo-reconnaissance missions to its use as a training machine and later as a display aircraft.
This detailed history of this iconic and much-loved jet fighter will appeal to all aviation fans.
©2016 Grub Street Ltd (P)2019 Grub Street LtdListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Bond has done a great job with this book with many personal accounts of the people that were involved every day in the life of the Meteor. Highly Recommended.” (International Plastic Modelers’ Society/USA)
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- The Making of a Jet Fighter Instructor
- By: Dave Bio Baranek
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
Before becoming an instructor in the Navy's Topgun program, Dave "Bio" Baranek was just another kid with a dream. Upon graduating from college, he joined the Navy with the goal of becoming a fighter pilot. But, his eyesight waning, he knew that he would never be able to reach that goal. Undaunted, he plowed ahead and found his niche as a radar intercept operator in the backseat of the sleek, new Grumman F-14 Tomcat.
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5 out of 5 stars
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SHB
- By Kindle Customer on 06-10-23
By: Dave Bio Baranek
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Bomber Pilot: A Memoir of World War II
- By: Philip Ardery
- Narrated by: James Killavey
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
"The sky was full of dying airplanes" as American Liberator bombers struggled to return to North Africa after their daring low-level raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti. They lost 446 airmen and 53 planes, but Philip Ardery's plane came home. This pilot was to take part in many more raids on Hitler's Europe, including air cover for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. This vivid firsthand account records one man's experience of World War II air warfare.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating...and true story
- By Loretta on 06-24-15
By: Philip Ardery
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Big Week
- The Biggest Air Battle of World War II
- By: James Holland
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 730
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 660
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 656
During the third week of February 1944, the combined Allied air forces based in Britain and Italy launched their first round-the-clock bomber offensive against Germany. Their goal: to smash the main factories and production centers of the Luftwaffe while also drawing German planes into an aerial battle of attrition to neutralize the Luftwaffe as a fighting force prior to the cross-channel invasion, planned for a few months later. Officially called Operation ARGUMENT, this aerial offensive quickly became known as “Big Week,” and it was one of the turning-points of World War II.
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5 out of 5 stars
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War in the Air: Sets stage with gripping narrative
- By Nashville Cat on 11-17-18
By: James Holland
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The Mighty Eighth
- The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It
- By: Gerald Astor
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 358
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 325
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 323
Europe has fallen. Pearl Harbor is in flames. Enter: the Eighth. In 1941 the RAF fought a desperate battle of survival against the Luftwaffe over Britain. Then, from across the Atlantic, came a new generation of American pilots, gunners, and bombardiers, a new generation of flying machines called the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 Liberator, the P-47 Thunderbolt, and the P-51 Mustang fighter.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Good Listen with 1 problem
- By Matthew Schuller on 08-23-19
By: Gerald Astor
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The Men Who Killed the Luftwaffe
- The U.S. Army Air Forces Against Germany in World War II
- By: Jay A. Stout
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 470
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 428
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 421
In this dramatic story of World War II, Jay A. Stout describes how the US built an air force of 2.3 million men after starting with 45,000 and defeated the world's best air force. In order to defeat Germany in World War II, the Allies needed to destroy the Third Reich's industry and invade its territory, but before they could effectively do either, they had to defeat the Luftwaffe, whose state-of-the-art aircraft and experienced pilots protected German industry and would batter any attempted invasion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A must read for WWII buffs
- By david on 07-27-17
By: Jay A. Stout
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Flying from the Black Hole
- The B-52 Navigator-Bombardiers of Vietnam
- By: Robert O. Harder
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
Air Force navigators and bombardiers have long labored under the shadow of pilots - their contributions undervalued, misunderstood, or unknown to the general public. This was especially the case with the non-pilot officer aircrew in the Vietnam and Cold War-era B-52 Stratofortress. Of the six people who operated the bomber, three wore navigator wings - two of those men were also bombardiers, the other an electronic warfare officer. Without the navigator-bombardiers in particular, executing the nuclear war strike plan or flying Southeast Asian bombing sorties would have been impossible.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Today I learned something new.
- By Rob Wilson on 02-20-21
By: Robert O. Harder
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Rescue Pilot
- Cheating the Sea
- By: Jerry Grayson
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Jerry Grayson is an ordinary man who chose an extraordinary career. At age 17 he became the youngest helicopter pilot ever to serve in the Royal Navy. By age 25 he was the most decorated peacetime naval pilot in history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great tales of adventure with fascinating facts about helicopters
- By david y muramatsu on 07-17-23
By: Jerry Grayson
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The Vietnam Air War
- From the Cockpit
- By: Colonel Dennis M. "Mike" Ridnouer
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 129
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Story5 out of 5 stars 126
The Vietnam War is one of the most misunderstood military conflicts in 20th-century America. Showcasing 72 true stories told by American servicemen who fought from the skies, this unique and historically significant collection is a stunning record of the air war in Southeast Asia during the 1960s and 1970s.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Overall worthy and perspective broadening
- By Clayton Cartier on 11-03-20
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Topgun Days
- Dogfighting, Cheating Death, and Hollywood Glory as One of America's Best Fighter Jocks
- By: Dave "Bio" Baranek
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 344
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 300
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 298
Dave Baranek (callsign "Bio") was one of 451 young men to receive his Wings of Gold in 1980 as a naval flight officer. Four years later, seasoned by intense training and deployments in the tense confrontations of the Cold War, he became the only one of that initial group to rise to become an instructor at the navy's elite Fighter Weapons School. As a Topgun instructor, Bio was responsible for teaching the navy's and Marine Corps' best fighter pilots how to be even better. He schooled them in the classroom and then went head-to-head with them in the skies.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Top Gun or Topgun
- By Randy on 02-19-13
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A Thousand Shall Fall
- The True Story of a Canadian Bomber Pilot in World War Two
- By: Murray Peden
- Narrated by: Anthony Haden Salerno
- Length: 19 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
During World War II, Canada trained tens of thousands of airmen under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Those selected for Bomber Command operations went on to rain devastation upon the Third Reich in the great air battles over Europe, but their losses were high. German fighters and anti-aircraft guns took a terrifying toll. The chances of surviving a tour of duty as a bomber crew were almost nil.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant account of WW2 flying
- By John on 06-14-17
By: Murray Peden
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Harnessing the Sky
- Frederick "Trap" Trapnell, the U.S. Navy's Aviation Pioneer, 1923-1952
- By: Frederick M. Trapnell Jr., Dana Trapnell Tibbitts
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
A pilot of calculated courage, "Trap" entered the Navy when test pilots were more like stuntmen than engineers. Airplanes had not yet come into their own as weapons of war, and they had an undeveloped role in the fleet. His vision and leadership shaped the evolution of naval aviation through its formative years and beyond. When the threat of war in 1940 raised an alarm over the Navy's deficiency in aircraft - especially fighters - Trap was appointed to lead the Flight Test Section to direct the development of all-new Navy airplanes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb Book
- By Peter H. Christensen on 09-27-19
By: Frederick M. Trapnell Jr., and others
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Skybreak
- The 58th Fighter Squadron in Desert Storm
- By: Mike Guardia
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
August 1990: Iraqi forces under the command of Saddam Hussein invaded the tiny emirate of Kuwait. In response, the US military led a coalition of thirty-four nations in what became known as Operation Desert Storm—a violent air and ground campaign to eject the Iraqis from Kuwait. At the tip of the spear were the men of the US Air Force’s 58th Fighter Squadron. Based on hours of interviews and archival research by author Mike Guardia, this book reveals an intimate, no-holds-barred account of modern aerial combat…as told by the men who lived it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Desert Storm Fighter Action
- By David T. Gato on 07-23-24
By: Mike Guardia
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Topgun
- An American Story
- By: Dan Pedersen
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 964
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 851
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Story5 out of 5 stars 852
Dan Pedersen takes listeners on a colorful and thrilling ride - from Miramar to Area 51 to the decks of aircraft carriers in war and peace - through a historic moment in air warfare. He helped establish a legacy that was built by him and his "Original Eight" - the best of the best - and carried on for six decades by some of America's greatest leaders. Topgun is a heartfelt and personal testimonial to patriotism, sacrifice, and American innovation and daring.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I loved it!
- By "airplane_cfii" on 10-09-19
By: Dan Pedersen
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Finish Forty and Home
- The Untold World War II Story of B-24s in the Pacific
- By: Phil Scearce
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4 out of 5 stars 52
During the early years of World War II in the Pacific theatre, against overwhelming odds, young American airmen flew the longest and most perilous bombing missions of the war. They faced determined Japanese fighters without fighter escort, relentless anti-aircraft fire with no deviations from target, and thousands of miles of over-water flying with no alternative landing sites.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Pretty Good!
- By Robert on 02-01-13
By: Phil Scearce
What listeners say about Meteor Boys
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Tony
- 06-29-19
Furst Generation Jets
Interesting book and partially explains the appalling accident rate the RAF suffered at that time. Would have liked more technical details on the aircraft and engines and more on the handling. The little bit of comparison given comparing the Gloster and the North American Sabre was tantalizing particularly the claim the Meteor could outperform the American jet at low altitudes. Needed expansion.
Still,this book provides rare coverage of a now forgotten era.
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