WORLD'S FASTEST PLANE HAS BEEN STOLEN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 276, 22 November 1945, Page 5

WORLD'S FASTEST PLANE HAS BEEN STOLEN

Recd. 9.20 p.m. London. Nov. 21 A twin-jet single-seater Gloster Meteor, the world’s fa test plane, mysteriously vanished from an R.A.F. station and is believed to be stolen, says the “Daily Mail.” Search was made throughout Britain and the Continent for the missing machine.

The alarm was raised at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, by which time fog had settled down over many southern airfields. Station commanders, up to last night, reported that no Meteor had landed. A signal was flashed to the few aerodromes which keep large supplies of paraflin on tap. Experts, calculating how far the pilot could have travelled with the short range of the Meteor, stated that he could have reached the Continent

Later information states that the plane vanished from an R.A.F. station at Molesworth, Huntingdonshire, where the Meteor squadron has been stationed for some time. The flying personnel of the station were immediately paraded, says the “Daily Herald,” resulting in the discovery that one sergeant-pilot was missing. It is believed the missing plane either crashed or made, a forced landing at an isolated spot. Experts say even with full tanks the Meteor could not have flown for more than an hour, although in that time it could have covered between 400 and 500 miles.