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« on: May 30, 2007, 12:10:29 PM »
Argentine Air Meteor's
To pay off the rather large debt to the Argentine government accumulated by the UK during WW II a deal was struck late 1947 to supply a serious number of airplanes to Argentina. Britain would supply 50 ex RAF Meteors and 50 specifically produced for the Argentine Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Argentina, FAA), 10 Avro Lancaster and 20 Avro Lincoln bombers and a whole bunch of smaller planes.
The transaction caused an uproar with the US Government but somehow Attlee's socialist UK government bulldozed the deal through and the first Meteors were delivered to the FAA in March 1948.
The FAA gave the Meteors the type designation 'I' (for Interceptor). As no dual control Meteors had been included in the deal, pilot training proved to be something of a problem. The Argentine pilots selected to fly the jets had experience only on Curtiss 75 Hawk propeller fighters. A scheme was devised whereby they first learned to fly on Airspeed Oxfords (to learn dual engine flight), then on to the DH-104 Dove (for tri-cycle landing gear familiarization) and finally on to jets. Throughout the operational history of the type you'll see a large number of accidents involving collapse or other problems with the landing gear (...)
Only three times during their operational history have Argentine Meteors fired shots in anger. The first time was during the (unsuccessful) April 1955 uprising against Juan Peron. One of the Meteors shot down a rebel AT-6 (whose pilot bailed out successfully). During the September 1955 revolt, that swept away Juan Peron, they came into action again, this time on both loyalist and rebel sides. And the final time was during the 1962 political troubles.
In 1963 it was decided to buy F-86F's as interceptors and to re-classify the Meteors as fighter-bombers. They were reserialed ‘C’ (for Caza) and re-sprayed in a camouflage pattern.
The Meteor's service life ended in 1970 when they were struck off-charge after a final fly-past of 5 machines that were still airworthy. They were replaced by F-86F Sabres, A-4D Skyhawks and ultimately Dassault Mirages. Some 20 seem to remain around the country as gate-guards and in museums.
Source - Internet - 1000aircraftphotos.com
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and of course great images 
well done my friend, I had not seen this before until I was going through a folder on my system which has over 2,000 images of WW2 planes 
