title: Aardman Animations

text: In December 1997, Aardman, DreamWorks (later DreamWorks Animation) and Pathé announced that their companies were teaming up to co-finance and distribute "Chicken Run", Aardman's first feature film, which had already been in pre-production for a year. On 27 October 1999, Aardman and DreamWorks signed a $250 million deal to make an additional four films that were estimated to be completed during the next 12 years. Along with the deal their first project was announced, titled "The Tortoise and the Hare". Intended to be based on Aesop's fable and directed by Richard Goleszowski, it was paused two years later because of the script problems. On 23 June 2000, "Chicken Run" was released to a great critical and financial success. In 2005, after ten years of absence, Wallace and Gromit returned in Academy Award-winning "". The following year "Flushed Away", Aardman's first computer-animated feature, was released.


title: Aardman Animations

text: On 1 October 2006, right before the release of "Flushed Away", "The New York Times" reported that due to creative differences DreamWorks Animation and Aardman would not be extending their contract. The deal was officially terminated on 30 January 2007. According to an Aardman spokesperson: "The business model of DreamWorks no longer suits Aardman and vice versa. But the split couldn't have been more amicable." Unofficial reasons for departure were weak performances of the last two movies, for which DreamWorks had to take writedowns, and citing the article, "Aardman executives chafed at the creative control DreamWorks tried to exert, particularly with "Flushed Away"..." The studio had another film in development, "Crood Awakening" (eventually "The Croods"), which had been announced in 2005, with John Cleese co-writing the screenplay. With the end of the partnership, the film's rights reverted to DreamWorks.


title: Aardman Animations

text: On 10 October 2005, a serious fire at a storage facility used by Aardman and other Bristol-based companies destroyed over 30 years of props, models, and scenery often built by the Bristol-based Cod Steaks. This warehouse was used for storage of past projects and so did not prevent the production of their current projects at the time. In addition, the company's library of finished films was stored elsewhere and was undamaged. An electrical fault was determined to be the cause of the blaze. Referring to the 2004 South Asia earthquake and tsunami, Park was quoted as saying, "Even though it is a precious and nostalgic collection and valuable to the company, in light of other tragedies, today isn't a big deal."


title: Aardman Animations

text: From 2006 to 2007, the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, had an exhibit featuring the works of Aardman Studios. Sproxton and Lord visited the exhibit in May 2006 and met with animator Hayao Miyazaki during the visit. Miyazaki has long been a fan of Aardman Animations' works.


title: Aardman Animations

text: In April 2007, Aardman signed and in 2010 renewed a three-year deal with Sony Pictures to finance, co-produce, and distribute feature films. The next year, Aardman released a new "Wallace and Gromit" short film, called "A Matter of Loaf and Death". The first film made in partnership with Sony was the computer-animated "Arthur Christmas" (2011), which is Aardman's first 3D feature film. 2012 saw the release of "The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!" (known internationally as "The Pirates! Band of Misfits"), Aardman's first 3D stop-motion film and Peter Lord's first film as a director since "Chicken Run". Two additional films were announced in June 2007: "The Cat Burglars", a stop-motion animated heist comedy film directed by Steve Box, about cat burglars that steal milk, and their plans to pull off 'the great milk float robbery'; and an untitled Nick Park project (which would later become "Early Man").


title: Aardman Animations

text: The studio is also known to provide generous resources and training to young animators by providing awards at various animation festivals. For example, The Aardman Award at the UK's Animex Festival in Teesside provides story consultation to a promising young animator for their next film.


title: Aardman Animations

text: In 2008, Aardman joined with Channel 4 and Lupus Films to launch a user-generated content animation portal called 4mations. They also designed the BBC One Christmas Idents for that year, which featured Wallace and Gromit to tie in with the showing of the new Wallace and Gromit film called "A Matter of Loaf and Death" on Christmas Day at 8:30pm. In April 2008, Aardman launched the Aardman YouTube channel, which is a YouTube Partner channel featuring the entire "Creature Comforts" TV series, the Morph series, "Cracking Contraptions" and clips from the Wallace and Gromit films. From December 2008, Aardman also started posting various flash games on Newgrounds, the majority of which are based on "Wallace and Gromit" and "Shaun the Sheep".


title: Aardman Animations

text: In 2009, Nintendo announced that Aardman would make twelve short films using only Flipnote Studio. The films were posted on Flipnote's Hatena web service provider. The first film was called "The Sandwich Twins" and was released on 16 September 2009. The remaining eleven films were released on a weekly basis until Christmas, and can also be downloaded using Hatena. In the same year, the headquarters of the studio moved into a new building, designed by Alec French architects, in Gas Ferry Road, Bristol, although work needing large-scale sets is still carried out in sheds in Aztec West and Bedminster. In April 2009, Aardman Animations edited the existing Watch identity by UKTV to make the inflatable eyeball (called "Blinky") in the idents blink.


title: Aardman Animations

text: In October 2013, Peter Lord (co-founder of Aardman Animations) created a fundraising project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The campaign has a target of £75,000 which will be used to fund 12 new one-minute episodes of Morph. Lord was hoping to start production in January 2014 using the original stop-frame animation. Backers of the project will receive a variety of rewards, including early access to the new animations and a small box of clay used in the production, depending on the individual's level of funding.


title: Aardman Animations

text: In 2015, the studio bought a majority share in New York-based animation studio Nathan Love, announcing the merger with a short film called "Introducing: Aardman Nathan Love" on 25 September of the same year of that being that the British stop-motion animated series "Digby Dragon" debuted on Nick Jr. UK in 2016.


title: Aardman Animations

text: In advance of Aardman's fortieth anniversary, BBC One aired the one-hour television documentary "A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman", first broadcast in December 2015. Narrated by Julie Walters, this career retrospective includes commentary by the company's founders and staff, as well as various friends, fans and colleagues including Terry Gilliam, John Lasseter, and Matt Groening.


title: Aardman Animations

text: From 29 June 2017 to 29 October 2017, an exhibition entitled "Wallace and Gromit and Friends" was shown at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne. A report on this exhibition was shown on Australian "ABC News Breakfast" on Wednesday, 28 June, featuring an 8-minute interview with producers Peter Lord and David Sproxton. The exhibition revealed that in Nick Park's very early sketches, Gromit was originally a cat, but Park soon changed him into a dog, since it was generally agreed that a dog was clearly more suitable as a loyal pet/companion than a cat and also because a dog would be easier to make and animate in Plasticine. Embedded in the ABC News article is a video interview with Lord and Sproxton, which gives information not only on Wallace and Gromit, but also Shaun the Sheep and others.


title: Aardman Animations

text: On 9 November 2018, Aardman Animations announced that Peter Lord and David Sproxton would be transferring majority ownership of the company to its employees in order to keep the studio independent. In January 2019, Lord and Sproxton released a book detailing the history of the studio, called "A Grand Success! The Aardman Journey, One Frame at a Time."


title: Aardman Animations

text: In December 2020, Netflix announced an Aardman Christmas musical special entitled "Robin Robin". The 30-minute short, starring Bronte Carmichael, Richard E. Grant, Gillian Anderson and Adeel Akhtar, was released on the platform on November 24, 2021.


title: Aardman Animations

text: On 20 January 2022, Netflix announced a sequel to "Chicken Run" entitled "Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget". The film, starring Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi, is slated to premiere on the platform in 2023. A new, untitled "Wallace and Gromit" film was also confirmed to be 'in the works', and is currently slated for a 2024 release.


title: Aardman Animations

text: The company name is taken from one of its early characters, a superhero created for "Vision On" in 1972. Unlike the claymation productions that the company are famous for, Aardman was cel-animated. Peter Lord has stated that the most interesting thing about the company name is that it "means nothing" and is only a joke that two teenagers found funny. He has stated that the name came from a combination of "Aardvark" and "Superman" for the reason that they found "aardvark" to be a particularly funny word. Aardman Animations became their company name when the BBC asked them to whom they should make their first cheque out. Co-founder David Sproxton has claimed that the name was a result of being unable to "find another word with more A's in it than 'aardvark as a schoolboy.


title: Aardman Animations

text: A number of Aardman directors have worked at other studios, taking the distinctive Aardman style with them.


title: Aardman Animations

text: Aardman's Steve Box directed the animated music video for the Spice Girls' final single as a five-piece, "Viva Forever". The video took over five months to produce, considerably longer than the group's box office hit movie, "Spice World". He is also the co-creator of the Finnish-British animated series Moominvalley, based on the Moomins books.


title: Aardman Animations

text: Barry Purves, director of the Aardman short "Next", also directed "Hamilton Mattress" for Harvest Films. The film, a half-hour special that premiered on Christmas Day 2001, was produced by Chris Moll, producer of the "Wallace and Gromit" short film "The Wrong Trousers". The models were provided by Mackinnon & Saunders, a firm that did the same for "Bob the Builder" and "Corpse Bride".


title: Aardman Animations

text: Similarly, "Robbie the Reindeer in Hooves of Fire", a BBC Bristol/Comic Relief production, was directed by Richard Goleszowski, creator of "Rex the Runt". Its sequel, "Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe", was directed by Peter Peake, whose directorial credits for Aardman include "Pib and Pog" and "Humdrum".


title: Aardman Animations

text: Aardman alumni also produced many of the claymation shorts used in the 1986–1990 American television series "Pee-wee's Playhouse".


title: Aardman Animations

text: Aardman Animation has produced a number of animated features, shorts, videos and TV series, as well as adverts. Their major feature films are:


title: Aardman Animations

text: The works of Aardman have received numerous awards and nominations, the major awards won include the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and BAFTA Award for Best British Film for "".


title: Diogo Dalot

text: José Diogo Dalot Teixeira (; born 18 March 1999) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club Manchester United and the Portugal national team.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: Dalot is a product of the Porto youth system and made his professional debut for the club's B team in January 2017. He made his first-team debut in a Taça de Portugal game in October 2017. After making eight appearances for Porto, he joined Manchester United in June 2018 for a reported fee of €22 million (£19 million). From October 2020 to June 2021, Dalot was loaned to Italian Serie A club Milan.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: Dalot was a youth international and represented Portugal from under-15 to under-21 level. He was a member of the under-17 squad that won the 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. He made his senior international debut for Portugal at UEFA Euro 2020.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: Born in Braga, Dalot joined Porto's youth system in 2008, aged nine. On 28 January 2017, he made his senior debut with the B team, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 home loss against Leixões for the LigaPro championship.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: Dalot first appeared with the first-team in a competitive game on 13 October 2017, starting in a 6–0 away win over Lusitano de Évora for the season's Taça de Portugal. He first played in the Primeira Liga on 18 February 2018, coming on as a 75th-minute substitute in a 5–0 home routing of Rio Ave.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: Dalot signed for Premier League club Manchester United on 6 June 2018 on a five-year contract for a fee of £19 million. Upon his arrival in Manchester, coach José Mourinho said that, considering his young age, he was one of the best right-backs around. He made his debut on 19 September 2018 in an away UEFA Champions League group stage match against Swiss side Young Boys, but was unable to have continuity in the team due to an injury sustained in the previous season.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: He made his Premier League debut on 1 December in a 2–2 away draw against Southampton. Despite Mourinho's sacking and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being appointed as the new manager, Dalot remained a valuable option: at the end of the season, he made 23 appearances. During that season, he had a memorable match in Paris, in the Champions League quarter-finals 2nd leg against Paris Saint-Germain, where Manchester United completed a remarkable comeback due to a late penalty, won after a shot by Dalot. He scored the second goal in a 6–0 FA Cup win against Tranmere Rovers; it was his first goal for United.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: During his first seasons for the club, Dalot struggled with various injuries and following the arrival of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, his performances were severely limited under manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: Following sporadic use by Manchester United, Dalot was loaned to Italian Serie A side Milan for the 2020–21 season. He made his debut for Milan on 22 October, starting in a 3–1 win against Celtic in a UEFA Europa League group stage match. Seven days later, Dalot scored his first goal for Milan and provided an assist for compatriot Rafael Leão in a 3–0 home group stage victory in the UEFA Europa League against Sparta Prague. He made his Serie A debut on 1 November, replacing Davide Calabria in the 71st-minute of a 2–1 away win against Udinese. He made his first start in the league in a 2–2 away draw against Genoa. On 7 March 2021, Dalot scored his first Serie A goal in a 2–0 away win at Hellas Verona.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: During the season, Dalot's versatility enabled him to play either as a right back and left back. This made him an integral part of Stefano Pioli's team, helping Milan secure second place in the 2020–21 Serie A and qualification for the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League after an eight-year absence. During his spell as a "Rossonero", he was able to play regularly, making 33 appearances, scoring two goals and providing three assists. As often said by Dalot himself, in Italy he was able to improve defensively, without losing his ability to attack.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: During the summer of 2021, Manchester United were interested in signing another right-back. Meanwhile, Milan, who were impressed with Dalot during his loan move with the club, began negotiations with Manchester United to sign him on permanent basis. After returning to Manchester United, he impressed coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with his performances during pre-season. Borussia Dortmund were also interested in signing him on a loan deal, but he decided to remain at United to compete with Aaron Wan-Bissaka for a starting position. On 22 September, Dalot was given his first start of the season, featuring in a 1–0 home loss to West Ham United in the third round of the EFL Cup. Since then, he has had limited opportunities with two starts and three substitute appearances. He played against Villarreal in a Champions League group stage match after Wan-Bissaka was suspended for two games.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: On 2 December, Dalot was given his first start in the league under interim manager Michael Carrick, putting an impressive performance and creating the second goal in a 3–2 home win over United's rivals Arsenal at Old Trafford. Following the arrival of interim manager Ralf Rangnick, Dalot cemented his place as starter for the club, following his solid performances in the club's next two matches against Crystal Palace and Norwich City. However, his form alongside his team declined during the season, with United finishing a disappointing sixth place and qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: During the summer, after the club, failed to sign a new right-back to streghten their defence, Dalot was presented with the opportunity to usurp Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the pecking order, which he seized immediately, with his attacking performances and ability to be involved with play in the final third, impressing new manager Erik ten Hag, leading Dalot's performances to be highly lauded, receiving various praises as United's most improved player during the 2022–23 season.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: Dalot helped Portugal win the 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship, scoring twice in five games in Azerbaijan including once in the final against Spain. The same year, he helped the under-19 team reach the quarter-finals of the same competition.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: With the under-19s, Dalot participated in the 2017 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, helping finishing as runner-up, after losing in the final to England. For his performances throughout the competition, he was named in the "Team of the Tournament". Dalot played for Portugal at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup, starting in all the matches in an eventual quarter-final exit.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: On 10 November 2017, he won his first cap for the Portugal under-21s, starting in a 1–1 away draw against Romania for the 2019 UEFA European Championship qualifiers. Starting in March 2021, Dalot took part in the 2021 European Under-21 Championship. Portugal finished as runners-up after losing in the final 1–0 to Germany, on 6 June 2021.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: On 13 June 2021, Dalot was included in Portugal's squad for UEFA Euro 2020 as a replacement for João Cancelo, who withdrew after testing positive for COVID-19. He made his debut ten days later in the final group game – a 2–2 draw with France in Budapest – in which he replaced Nélson Semedo for the final 11 minutes. On 27 June, Dalot made his first start with the senior national team, in a 1–0 loss to Belgium in the round 16.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: In October 2021, he was called up by Portugal and on 9 October, he provided two assists, with the first being converted by Cristiano Ronaldo in a 3–0 home win against Qatar. On 24 September 2022, Dalot scored his first two international goals in a 4–0 away win against the Czech Republic during the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: In October, he was named in Portugal's preliminary 55-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, being included in the final 26-man squad for the tournament.


title: Diogo Dalot

text: Dalot is a physically strong defender known for his speed, technique and offensive capabilities. He can play as a full-back or winger on either flank, although he usually plays on the right. He is usually deployed as a wing-back on the right but in a more conventional full-back role on the left. As a left-back, he has been praised for his work ethic and defensive awareness. He has good dribbling skill and is noted for his involvement in counter-attacks by making crosses or long passes. His physique enables him to perform well in aerial duels.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneered by Frank Whittle and his company, Power Jets Ltd. Development of the aircraft began in 1940, although work on the engines had been under way since 1936. The Meteor first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with No. 616 Squadron RAF. The Meteor was not a sophisticated aircraft in its aerodynamics, but proved to be a successful combat fighter. Gloster's 1946 civil Meteor F.4 demonstrator "G-AIDC" was the first civilian-registered jet aircraft in the world. Several major variants of the Meteor incorporated technological advances during the 1940s and 1950s. Thousands of Meteors were built to fly with the RAF and other air forces and remained in use for several decades.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The Meteor saw limited action in the Second World War. Meteors of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) fought in the Korean War. Several other operators such as Argentina, Egypt and Israel flew Meteors in later regional conflicts. Specialised variants of the Meteor were developed for use in photographic aerial reconnaissance and as night fighters.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The Meteor was also used for research and development purposes and to break several aviation records. On 7 November 1945, the first official airspeed record by a jet aircraft was set by a Meteor F.3 at . In 1946, this record was broken when a Meteor F.4 reached a speed of . Other performance-related records were broken in categories including flight time endurance, rate of climb, and speed. On 20 September 1945, a heavily modified Meteor I, powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent turbine engines driving propellers, became the first turboprop aircraft to fly. On 10 February 1954, a specially adapted Meteor F.8, the "Meteor Prone Pilot", which placed the pilot into a prone position to counteract inertial forces, took its first flight.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: In the 1950s, the Meteor became increasingly obsolete as more nations developed jet fighters, many of these newcomers having adopted a swept wing instead of the Meteor's conventional straight wing; in RAF service, the Meteor was replaced by newer types such as the Hawker Hunter and Gloster Javelin. As of 2018, two Meteors, "G-JSMA" and "G-JWMA", remain in active service with the Martin-Baker company as ejection seat testbeds. One further aircraft in the UK remains airworthy, as does another in Australia.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The development of the turbojet-powered Gloster Meteor was a collaboration between the Gloster Aircraft Company and Frank Whittle's firm, Power Jets Ltd. Whittle formed Power Jets Ltd in March 1936 to develop his ideas of jet propulsion, Whittle himself serving as the company's chief engineer. For several years, attracting financial backers and aviation firms prepared to take on Whittle's radical ideas was difficult; in 1931, Armstrong-Siddeley had evaluated and rejected Whittle's proposal, finding it to be technically sound but at the limits of engineering capability. Securing funding was a persistently worrying issue throughout the early development of the engine. The first Whittle prototype jet engine, the Power Jets WU, began running trials in early 1937; shortly afterwards, both Sir Henry Tizard, chairman of the Aeronautical Research Committee, and the Air Ministry gave the project their support.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: On 28 April 1939, Whittle made a visit to the premises of the Gloster Aircraft Company, where he met several key figures, such as George Carter, Gloster's chief designer. Carter took a keen interest in Whittle's project, particularly when he saw the operational Power Jets W.1 engine; Carter quickly made several rough proposals of various aircraft designs powered by the engine. Independently, Whittle had also been producing several proposals for a high-altitude jet-powered bomber; following the start of the Second World War and the Battle for France, a greater national emphasis on fighter aircraft arose. Power Jets and Gloster quickly formed a mutual understanding around mid-1939.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: In spite of ongoing infighting between Power Jets and several of its stakeholders, the Air Ministry contracted Gloster in late 1939 to manufacture a prototype aircraft powered by one of Whittle's new turbojet engines. The single-engined proof-of-concept Gloster E28/39, the first British jet-powered aircraft, conducted its maiden flight on 15 May 1941, flown by Gloster's chief test pilot, Flight Lieutenant Philip "Gerry" Sayer. The success of the E.28/39 proved the viability of jet propulsion, and Gloster pressed ahead with designs for a production fighter aircraft. Due to the limited thrust available from early jet engines, it was decided that subsequent production aircraft would be powered by a pair of turbojet engines.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: In 1940, for a "military load" of , the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) had advised that work on an aircraft of all-up weight, with a total static thrust of should be started, with an design for the expected, more powerful, W.2 and axial engine designs. George Carter's calculations based on the RAE work and his own investigations were that a aircraft with two or four 20 mm cannons and six 0.303 machine guns would have a top speed of at sea level and at . In January 1941 Gloster were told by Lord Beaverbrook that the twin jet fighter was of "unique importance", and that the company was to stop work on a night-fighter development of their F.9/37 to Specification F.18/40.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: In August 1940, Carter presented Gloster's initial proposals for a twin-engined jet fighter with a tricycle undercarriage. On 7 February 1941, Gloster received an order for twelve prototypes (later reduced to eight) under Specification F9/40. A letter of intent for the production of 300 of the new fighter, initially to be named "Thunderbolt," was issued on 21 June 1941; to avoid confusion with the USAAF Republic P-47 Thunderbolt which had been issued with the same name to the RAF in 1944, the aircraft's name was subsequently changed to "Meteor." During the aircraft's secretive development, employees and officials made use of the codename "Rampage" to refer to the Meteor, as similarly the de Havilland Vampire would initially be referred to as the "Spider Crab". Test locations and other key project information were also kept secret.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Although taxiing trials were carried out in 1942, it was not until the following year that any flights took place due to production and approval holdups with the Power Jets W.2 engine powering the Meteor. On 26 November 1942 production of the Meteor was ordered to stop due to the delays at subcontractor Rover, which was struggling to manufacture the W.2 engines on schedule; considerable interest was shown in Gloster's E.1/44 proposal for a single-engine fighter, unofficially named Ace. Gloster continued development work on the Meteor and the production-stop order was overturned in favour of the construction of six (later increased to eight) F9/40 prototypes alongside three E.1/44 prototypes. Rover's responsibilities for development and production of the W.2B engine were also transferred to Rolls-Royce that year.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: On 5 March 1943, the fifth prototype, serial "DG206", powered by two substituted de Havilland Halford H.1 engines owing to problems with the intended W.2 engines, became the first Meteor to become airborne at RAF Cranwell, piloted by Michael Daunt. On the initial flight, an uncontrollable yawing motion was discovered, which led to a redesigned larger rudder; however, no difficulties had been attributed to the groundbreaking turbojet propulsion. Only two prototypes flew with de Havilland engines because of their low flight endurance. Before the first prototype aircraft had even undertaken its first flight, an extended order for 100 production-standard aircraft had been placed by the RAF.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The first Whittle-engined aircraft, "DG205/G", flew on 12 June 1943 (later crashing during takeoff on 27 April 1944) and was followed by "DG202/G" on 24 July. "DG202/G" was later used for deck handling tests aboard aircraft carrier . "DG203/G" made its first flight on 9 November 1943, later becoming a ground instructional airframe. "DG204/G", powered by Metrovick F.2 engines, first flew on 13 November 1943; "DG204/G" was lost in an accident on 4 January 1944, the cause believed to have been an engine compressor failure due to overspeed. "DG208/G" made its début on 20 January 1944, by which time the majority of design problems had been overcome and a production design had been approved. "DG209/G" was used as an engine testbed by Rolls-Royce, first flying on 18 April 1944. "DG207/G" was intended to be the basis for the Meteor F.2 with de Havilland engines, but it did not fly until 24 July 1945, at which time the Meteor 3 was in full production and de Havilland's attention was being redirected to the upcoming de Havilland Vampire; consequently the F.2 was cancelled.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: On 12 January 1944, the first Meteor F.1, serial "EE210/G", took to the air from Moreton Valence in Gloucestershire. It was essentially identical to the F9/40 prototypes except for the addition of four nose-mounted 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk V cannon and some changes to the canopy to improve all-round visibility. Due to the F.1's similarity to the prototypes, they were frequently operated in the test program to progress British understanding of jet propulsion, and it took until July 1944 for the aircraft to enter squadron service. "EE210/G" was later sent to the U.S. for evaluation in exchange for a pre-production Bell YP-59A Airacomet, the Meteor being flown first by John Grierson at Muroc Army Airfield on 15 April 1944.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Originally 300 F.1s were ordered, but the total produced was reduced to 20 aircraft as the follow-on orders had been converted to the more advanced models. Some of the last major refinements to the Meteor's early design were trialled using this first production batch, and what was to become the long-term design of the engine nacelles was introduced upon "EE211". The original nacelles had been discovered by the RAE to suffer from compressibility buffeting at higher speeds, causing increased drag; the re-designed longer nacelles eliminated this and provided an increase in the Meteor's maximum speed. The lengthened nacelles were introduced on the final fifteen Meteor IIIs. "EE215" was the first Meteor to be fitted with guns; "EE215" was also used in engine reheat trials, the addition of reheat increasing top speed from 420 mph to 460 mph. and was later converted into the first two-seat Meteor. Due to the radical differences between jet-powered aircraft and those that it replaced, a special "Tactical Flight" or "T-Flight" unit was established to prepare the Meteor for squadron service, led by Group Captain Hugh Joseph Wilson. The Tactical Flight was formed at Farnborough in May 1944, the first Meteors arriving the following month, upon which both tactical applications and limitations were extensively explored.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: On 17 July 1944, the Meteor F.1 was cleared for service use. Shortly afterwards, elements of the Tactical Flight and their aircraft were transferred to operational RAF squadrons. The first deliveries to No. 616 Squadron RAF, the first operational squadron to receive the Meteor, began in July 1944. When the F.2 was cancelled, the Meteor F.3 became the immediate successor to the F.1 and alleviated some of the shortcomings of the F.1. In August 1944, the first F.3 prototype flew; early F.3 production aircraft were still fitted with the Welland engine as the Derwent engine's production was just starting at this point. A total of 210 F.3 aircraft were produced before they were in turn superseded by production of the Meteor F.4 in 1945.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Several Meteor F.3s were converted into navalised aircraft. The adaptations included a strengthened undercarriage and arrester hook. Operational trials of the type took place aboard . The trials included carrier landings and takeoffs. Performance of these naval prototype Meteors proved to be favourable, including takeoff performance, leading to further trials with a modified Meteor F.4 fitted with folding wings; a 'clipped wing' was also adopted. The Meteor later entered service with the Royal Navy, but only as a land-based trainer, the Meteor T.7, to prepare pilots of the Fleet Air Arm for flying other jet aircraft such as the de Havilland Sea Vampire.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: While various marks of Meteor had been introduced by 1948, they had remained very similar to the prototypes of the Meteor; consequently, the performance of the Meteor F.4 was beginning to be eclipsed by new jet designs. Gloster therefore embarked on a redesign programme to produce a new version of the Meteor with better performance. Designated "Meteor F.8", this upgraded variant was a potent fighter aircraft, forming the bulk of RAF Fighter Command between 1950 and 1955. The Meteor continued to be operated in a military capacity by several nations into the 1960s.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: To replace the increasingly obsolete de Havilland Mosquito as a night fighter, the Meteor was adapted to serve in the role as an interim aircraft. Gloster had initially proposed a night fighter design to meet the Air Ministry specification for the Mosquito replacement, based on the two seater trainer variant of the Meteor, with the pilot in the front seat and the navigator in the rear. Once accepted however, work on the project was swiftly transferred to Armstrong Whitworth to perform both the detailed design process and production of the type; the first prototype flew on 31 May 1950. Although based on the T.7 twin seater, it used the fuselage and tail of the F.8, and the longer wings of the F.3. An extended nose contained the AI Mk 10 (the 1940s Westinghouse SCR-720) Air Intercept radar. As a consequence the 20 mm cannons were moved into the wings, outboard of the engines. A ventral fuel tank and wing mounted drop tanks completed the Armstrong Whitworth Meteor NF.11.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: As radar technology developed, a new Meteor night fighter was developed to use the improved US-built APS-21 system. The "NF.12" first flew on 21 April 1953. It was similar to the NF 11 but had a nose section longer; the fin was enlarged to compensate for the greater keel area of the enlarged nose and to counter the airframe reaction to the sideways oscillating motion of the radar scanner which caused difficulty aiming the guns, an anti-tramp motor operating on the rudder was fitted midway up the front leading edge of the fin. The NF.12 also had the new Rolls-Royce Derwent 9 engines and the wings were reinforced to handle the new engine. Deliveries of the NF.12 started in 1953, with the type entering squadron service in early 1954, equipping seven squadrons (Nos 85, 25, 152, 46, 72, 153 and 64); the aircraft was replaced over 1958–1959.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The final Meteor night fighter was the "NF.14". First flown on 23 October 1953, the NF.14 was based on the NF.12 but had an even longer nose, extended by a further 17 inches to accommodate new equipment, increasing the total length to and a larger bubble canopy to replace the framed T.7 version. Just 100 NF.14s were built; they first entered service in February 1954 beginning with No. 25 Squadron and were being replaced as early as 1956 by the Gloster Javelin. Overseas, they remained in service a little longer, serving with No. 60 Squadron at Tengah, Singapore until 1961. As the NF.14 was replaced, some 14 were converted to training aircraft as the "NF(T).14" and given to No. 2 Air Navigation School on RAF Thorney Island until transferring to No. 1 Air Navigation School at RAF Stradishall where they served until 1965.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The first operational version of the Meteor, designated as the Meteor F.1, apart from the minor airframe refinements, was a straightforward 'militarisation' of the earlier F9/40 prototypes. The dimensions of the standard Meteor F.1 were long with a span of , with an empty weight of and a maximum takeoff weight of . Despite the revolutionary turbojet propulsion used, the design of the Meteor was relatively orthodox and did not take advantage of many aerodynamic features used on other, later jet fighters, such as swept wings; the Meteor shared a broadly similar basic configuration to its German equivalent, the Messerschmitt Me 262, which was also aerodynamically conventional.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: It was an all-metal aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage and conventional low, straight wings with mid-mounted turbojet engines and a high-mounted tailplane clear of the jet exhaust. The Meteor F.1 exhibited some problematic flying characteristics typical of early jet aircraft; it suffered from stability problems at high transonic speeds, large trim changes, high stick forces and self-sustained yaw instability (snaking) caused by airflow separation over the thick tail surfaces. The longer fuselage of the Meteor T.7, a two-seater trainer, significantly reduced the aerodynamic instability that the early Meteors were known for.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Later Meteor variants would see a large variety of changes from the initial Meteor F.1 introduced to service in 1944. Much attention was given to raising the aircraft's top speed, often by improving the airframe's aerodynamic qualities, incorporating the latest engine developments, and increasing the strength of the airframe. The Meteor F.8, which emerged in the late 1940s, was considered to have substantially improved performance over prior variants; the F.8 was reportedly the most powerful single-seat aircraft flying in 1947, capable of ascending to within five minutes.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: From the outset, each Meteor was constructed from several modular sections or separately produced units, a deliberate design choice to allow for production to be dispersed and for easy disassembly for transport. Each aircraft comprised five main sections: nose, forward fuselage, central section, rear fuselage and tail units; the wings were also built out of lengthwise sections. The forward section contained the pressure cabin, gun compartments, and forward undercarriage. The centre section incorporated much of the structural elements, including the inner wing, engine nacelles, fuel tank, ammunition drums, and main undercarriage. The rear fuselage was of a conventional semi-monocoque structure. Various aluminium alloys were the primary materials used throughout the structure of the Meteor, such as the stressed duralumin skin.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Across the Meteor's production life, various different companies were subcontracted to manufacture aircraft sections and major components; due to the wartime workload on producing fighter aircraft such as the Hawker Hurricane and Hawker Typhoon, neither Gloster nor the wider Hawker Siddeley Group were able to internally meet the production demand of 80 aircraft per month. Bristol Tramways produced the forward fuselage of the aircraft, the Standard Motor Company manufactured the central fuselage and inner wing sections, the Pressed Steel Company produced the rear fuselage, and Parnall Aircraft made the tail unit. Other main subcontractors included Boulton Paul Aircraft, Excelsior Motor Radiator Company, Bell Punch, Turner Manufacturing Company, and Charlesworth Bodies; as many of these firms had little or no experience producing aircraft, both quality and interchangeability of components were maintained by contractually enforced adherence to Gloster's original drawings.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: From the Meteor F.4 onwards, Armstrong Whitworth began completing whole units at their Coventry facility in addition to Gloster's own production line. Belgian aviation firm Avions Fairey also produced the Meteor F.8 under licence from Gloster for the Belgian Air Force; a similar licence manufacturing arrangement was made with Dutch company Fokker to meet the Royal Netherlands Air Force's order.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The "Meteor F.1" was powered by two Rolls-Royce Welland turbojet engines, Britain's first production jet engines, which were built under licence from Whittle's designs. The Meteor embodied the advent of practical jet propulsion; in the type's service life, both military and civil aviation manufacturers rapidly integrated turbine engines into their designs, favouring its advantages such as smoother running and greater power output. The Meteor's engines were considerably more practical than those of the German Me 262 as, unlike the Me 262, the engines were embedded into the wing in nacelles between the front and rear spars rather than underslung, saving some weight due to shorter landing gear legs and less massive spars.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The W.2B/23C engines upon which the Welland was based produced of thrust each, giving the aircraft a maximum speed of at and a range of . It incorporated a hydraulically driven engine starter developed by Rolls-Royce, which was automated following the press of a starter button in the cockpit. The engines also drove hydraulic and vacuum pumps as well as a generator via a Rotol gearbox fixed on the forward wing spar; the cockpit was also heated by bleed air from one of the engines. The acceleration rate of the engines was manually controlled by the pilot; rapid engine acceleration would frequently induce compressor stalls early on; the likelihood of compressor stalls was effectively eliminated upon further design refinements of both the Welland engine and the Meteor itself. At high speeds the Meteor had a tendency to lose directional stability, often during unfavourable weather conditions, leading to a 'snaking' motion; this could be easily resolved by throttling back to reduce speed.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Based upon designs produced by Power Jets, Rolls-Royce produced more advanced and powerful turbojet engines. Beyond numerous improvements made to the Welland engine that powered the early Meteors, Rolls-Royce and Power Jets collaborated to develop the more capable Derwent engine, which as the Rover B.26 had undergone a radical re-design from the W.2B/500 while at Rover. The Derwent engine, and the re-designed Derwent V based on the Nene, was installed on many of the later production Meteors; the adoption of this new powerplant led to considerable performance increases. The Meteor often served as the basis for the development of other early turbojet designs; a pair of Meteor F.4s were sent to Rolls-Royce to aid in their experimental engine trials, "RA435" being used for reheat testing, and "RA491" being fitted with the Rolls-Royce Avon, an axial-flow engine. From their involvement in the development of the Meteor's engines, Armstrong-Siddeley, Bristol Aircraft, Metropolitan-Vickers, and de Havilland also independently developed their own gas turbine engines.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: During development, sceptical elements of the Air Ministry had expected mature piston-powered aircraft types to exceed the capabilities of the Meteor in all respects except that of speed; thus, the performance of early Meteors was considered favourable for the interceptor mission, being capable of out-diving the majority of enemy aircraft. The conclusion of in-service trials conducted between the Meteor F.3. and the Hawker Tempest V was that the performance of the Meteor exceeded the Tempest in almost all respects and that, barring some manoeuvrability issues, the Meteor could be considered a capable all-round fighter. Pilots formerly flying piston-engine aircraft often described the Meteor as being exciting to fly. Ex-RAF pilot Norman Tebbit stated of his experience of the Meteor: "Get airborne, up with the wheels, hold it low until you were about 380 knots, pull it up and she would go up, well we thought then, like a rocket".


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Early jet engines consumed a lot more fuel than the piston engines they replaced so the Welland engines imposed considerable flight-time limitations on the Meteor F.1, leading to the type being used for local interception duties only. In the post-war environment, there was considerable pressure to increase the range of interceptors to counter the threat of bombers armed with nuclear weapons. The long-term answer to this question was in-flight refuelling; several Meteors were provided to Flight Refuelling Limited for trials of the newly developed probe-and-drogue refuelling techniques. This capability was not incorporated in service Meteors, which had already been supplanted by more modern interceptor aircraft at this point.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: A total of 890 Meteors were lost in RAF service (145 of these crashes occurring in 1953 alone), resulting in the deaths of 450 pilots. Contributory factors in the number of crashes were the poor brakes, failure of the landing gear, the high fuel consumption and consequent short flight endurance (less than one hour) causing pilots to run out of fuel, and difficult handling with one engine out due to the widely set engines. The casualty rate was exacerbated by the lack of ejection seats in early series Meteors; the much higher speed that the aircraft was capable of meant that to bail out pilots might have to overcome high g forces and fast-moving airflow past the cockpit; there was also a greater likelihood of the pilot striking the horizontal tailplane. Ejection seats were fitted in the later F.8, FR.9, PR.10 and some experimental Meteors. The difficulty of baling out of the Meteor had been noted by pilots during development, reporting several contributing design factors such as the limited size and relative position of the cockpit to the rest of the aircraft, and difficulty in using the two-lever jettisonable hood mechanism.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: No. 616 Squadron RAF was the first to receive operational Meteors: a total of 14 aircraft were initially delivered. The squadron was based at RAF Culmhead, Somerset and had been equipped with the Spitfire VII. The conversion to the Meteor was initially a matter of great secrecy. Following a conversion course at Farnborough attended by the squadron's six leading pilots, the first aircraft was delivered to Culmhead on 12 July 1944. The squadron and its seven Meteors moved on 21 July 1944 to RAF Manston on the east Kent coast and, within a week, 32 pilots had been converted to the type.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The Meteor was initially used to counter the V-1 flying bomb threat. 616 Squadron Meteors saw action for the first time on 27 July 1944, when three aircraft were active over Kent. These were the first operational jet combat missions for the Meteor and for the Royal Air Force. After some problems, especially with jamming guns, the first two V1 "kills" were made on 4 August. By war's end, Meteors had accounted for 14 flying bombs. After the end of the V-1 threat, and the introduction of the ballistic V-2 rocket, the RAF was forbidden to fly the Meteor on combat missions over German-held territory for fear of an aircraft being shot down and salvaged by the Germans.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: No. 616 Squadron briefly moved to RAF Debden to allow United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) bomber crews to gain experience and create tactics in facing jet-engined foes before moving to Colerne, Wiltshire. For a week from 10 October 1944 a series of exercises were carried out in which a flight of Meteors made mock attacks on a formation of 100 B-24s and B-17s escorted by 40 Mustangs and Thunderbolts. These suggested that, if the jet fighter attacked the formation from above, it could take advantage of its superior speed in the dive to attack the bombers and then escape by diving through the formation before the escorts could react. The best tactic to counter this was to place a fighter screen 5,000 ft above the bombers and attempt to intercept the jets early in the dive. The exercise was also useful from No. 616 Squadron's perspective, giving valuable practical experience in Meteor operations.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: No. 616 Squadron exchanged its F.1s for the first "Meteor F.3"s on 18 December 1944. These first 15 F.3s differed from the F.1 in having a sliding canopy in place of the sideways hinging canopy, increased fuel capacity and some airframe refinements. They were still powered by Welland I engines. Later F.3s were equipped with the Derwent I engines. This was a substantial improvement over the earlier mark, although the basic design still had not reached its potential. Wind tunnel and flight tests demonstrated that the original short nacelles, which did not extend far fore and aft of the wing, contributed heavily to compressibility buffeting at high speed. New, longer nacelles not only cured some of the compressibility problems but added at altitude, even without upgraded powerplants. The last batch of Meteor F.3s featured the longer nacelles; other F.3s were retrofitted in the field with the new nacelles. The F.3 also had the new Rolls-Royce Derwent engines, increased fuel capacity, and a new larger, more strongly raked bubble canopy.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Judging the "Meteor F.3"s were ready for combat over Europe, the RAF finally decided to deploy them on the continent. On 20 January 1945, four Meteors from 616 Squadron were moved to Melsbroek in Belgium and attached to the Second Tactical Air Force, just under three weeks after the Luftwaffe's surprise Unternehmen Bodenplatte attack on New Year's Day, in which Melsbroek's RAF base, designated as Allied Advanced Landing Ground "B.58", had been struck by piston-engined fighters of JG 27 and JG 54. The 616 Squadron Meteor F.3s' initial purpose was to provide air defence for the airfield, but their pilots hoped that their presence might provoke the Luftwaffe into sending Me 262 jets against them. At this point the Meteor pilots were still forbidden to fly over German-occupied territory, or to go east of Eindhoven, to prevent a downed aircraft being captured by the Germans or the Soviets.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: In March, the entire squadron was moved to Gilze-Rijen Air Base and then in April, to Nijmegen. The Meteors flew armed reconnaissance and ground attack operations without encountering any German jet fighters. By late April, the squadron was based at Faßberg, Germany and suffered its first losses when two aircraft collided in poor visibility. The war ended with the Meteors having destroyed 46 German aircraft through ground attack. Friendly fire through misidentification as Messerschmitt Me 262s by Allied anti-aircraft gunners was more of a threat than the already-diminished forces of the Luftwaffe; to counter this, continental-based Meteors were given an all-white finish as a recognition aid.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The next-generation "Meteor F.4" prototype first flew on 17 May 1945, and went into production in 1946 when 16 RAF squadrons were already operating Meteors. Equipped with Rolls-Royce Derwent 5 engines, the smaller version of the Nene, the F.4 was faster than the F.1 at sea level (585 against 415), but the reduced wings impaired its rate of climb. The F.4 wingspan was 86.4 cm shorter than the F.3 and with blunter wing tips, derived from the world speed record prototypes. Improvements included a strengthened airframe, fully pressurised cockpit, lighter ailerons to improve manoeuvrability, and rudder trim adjustments to reduce snaking. The F.4 could be fitted with a drop tank under each wing, and experiments were carried out with carriage of underwing stores and also in lengthened fuselage models.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Because of increased demand, F.4 production was divided between Gloster and Armstrong Whitworth. The majority of early F.4s did not go to the RAF: 100 were exported to Argentina, seeing action on both sides in the 1955 revolution; in 1947, only RAF Nos. 74 and 222 squadrons were fully equipped with the F.4. Nine further RAF squadrons converted from 1948 onwards. From 1948, 38 F.4s were exported to the Dutch, equipping four squadrons (322, 323, 326 and 327) split between bases in Soesterberg and Leeuwarden until the mid-1950s. In 1949, only two RAF squadrons were converted to the F.4, Belgium was sold 48 aircraft in the same year (going to 349 and 350 squadrons at Beauvechain) and Denmark received 20 over 1949–1950. In 1950, three more RAF squadrons were upgraded, including No. 616 and, in 1951, six more.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: A modified two-seater F.4 for jet-conversion and advanced training was tested in 1949 as the "T.7". It was accepted by the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm and became a common addition to the various export packages (for example 43 to Belgium between 1948 and 1957, a similar number to the Netherlands over the same period, two to Syria in 1952, six to Israel in 1953, etc.). Despite its limitations – unpressurised cockpit, no armament, limited instructor instrumentation – more than 650 T.7s were manufactured. The T.7 remained in RAF service into the 1970s.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: As improved jet fighters emerged, Gloster decided to modernise the F.4 while retaining as much of the manufacturing tooling as possible. The result was the definitive production model, the "Meteor F.8" (G-41-K), serving as a major RAF fighter until the introduction of the Hawker Hunter and the Supermarine Swift. The first prototype F.8 was a modified F.4, followed by a true prototype, "VT150", that flew on 12 October 1948 at Moreton Valence. Flight testing of the F.8 prototype led to the discovery of an aerodynamic problem: after ammunition was expended, the aircraft became tail-heavy and unstable around the pitch axis due to the weight of fuel in fuselage tanks no longer being balanced by the ammunition. Gloster solved the problem by substituting the tail of the abortive G 42 single-engined jet fighter. The F.8 and other production variants successfully used the new tail design, giving the later Meteors a distinctive appearance, with taller straighter edges compared with the rounded tail of the F.4s and earlier marks.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The F.8 also featured a fuselage stretch of , intended to shift the aircraft's centre of gravity and also eliminate the use of ballast formerly necessary in earlier marks due to the subsequent elimination from the design of two of the originally designed six installed cannon. The F.8 incorporated uprated engines, Derwent 8s, with thrust each combined with structural strengthening, a Martin Baker ejection seat and a "blown" teardrop cockpit canopy that provided improved pilot visibility. Between 1950 and 1955, the Meteor F.8 was the mainstay of RAF Fighter Command, and served with distinction in combat in Korea with the RAAF as well as operating with many air forces worldwide, although it was clear that the original design was obsolete compared with contemporary swept-wing fighters such as the North American F-86 Sabre and the Soviet MiG-15.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Initial deliveries of the F.8 to the RAF were in August 1949, with the first squadron receiving its fighters in late 1950. Like the F.4, there were strong export sales of the F.8. Belgium ordered 240 aircraft, the majority assembled in The Netherlands by Fokker. The Netherlands had 160 F.8s, equipping seven squadrons until 1955. Denmark had 20, ordered in 1951, the last F.8s in front-line service in Europe. The RAAF ordered 94 F.8s, which served in the Korean War. Despite arms embargoes, both Syria and Egypt received F.8s from 1952, as did Israel, each using their Meteors during the Suez Crisis. Brazil ordered 60 new Meteor F.8s and 10 T.7 trainers in October 1952, paying with 15,000 tons of raw cotton.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: In the 1950s, Meteors were developed into effective photo-reconnaissance, training and night fighter versions. The fighter reconnaissance (FR) versions were the first to be built, replacing the ageing Spitfires and Mosquitos then in use. Two "FR.5"s were built on the F.4 body; one was used for nose section camera tests, the other broke up in midair while in testing over Moreton Valence. On 23 March 1950, the first "FR.9" flew. Based on the F.8, it was 20 cm longer with a new nose incorporating a remote control camera and window and was also fitted with additional external ventral and wing fuel tanks. Production of the FR.9 began in July. No. 208 Squadron, then based at Fayid, Egypt was the first to be upgraded followed by the 2nd Tactical Air Force in West Germany, No. 2 Squadron RAF at Bückeburg and No. 79 Squadron RAF at RAF Gutersloh flew the FR.9 from 1951 until 1956. In Aden, No. 8 Squadron RAF was given FR.9s in November 1958 and used them until 1961. Ecuador (12), Israel (7) and Syria (2) were foreign customers for the FR.9.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: In 1951, 29, 141, 85 and 264 squadrons each received a number of NF.11 aircraft, the first of the Meteor night fighters. It was rolled out across the RAF until the final deliveries in 1954. A "tropicalised" version of the NF.11 for the Middle East was developed; first flying on 23 December 1952 as the "NF.13". The aircraft equipped No. 219 Squadron RAF at Kabrit and No. 39 Squadron at Fayid, both in Egypt. The aircraft served during the Suez crisis and remained with No. 39 Squadron after they were withdrawn to Malta until 1958. Several problems were encountered: the heavily framed T.7 canopy made landings tricky due to limited visibility, the under-wing external fuel tanks tended to break up when the wing cannons were fired, and gun harmonisation, normally set to about 400 yards, was poor due to the wings flexing in flight. Belgium (24), Denmark (20) and France (41) were foreign customers for the NF.11. Ex-RAF NF.13s were sold to France (two), Syria (six), Egypt (six) and Israel (six).


title: Gloster Meteor

text: In addition to the armed, low altitude operation, tactical FR.9 variant, Gloster also developed the "PR.10" for high altitude missions. The first prototype flew on 29 March 1950 and was actually converted into the first production aircraft. Based on the F.4, it had the F.4-style tail and the longer wings of the earlier variant. All the cannons were removed and a single camera placed in the nose with two more in the rear fuselage; the canopy was also changed. The PR.10 was delivered to the RAF in December 1950 and were given to No. 2 and No. 541 squadrons in Germany and No. 13 Squadron RAF in Cyprus. The PR.10 was rapidly phased out from 1956; rapid improvements in surface-to-air missile technology and the introduction of newer aircraft capable of flying at greater altitudes and speeds had rendered the aircraft obsolete.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Argentina became the first overseas operator of the Meteor, placing an order for 100 F Mk.4s in May 1947. The Meteor's procurement led to Argentina becoming the second air force in the Americas to operate jet aircraft.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The Argentine Meteors were first used in combat during the 16 June 1955 rebellion when, in an attempt to kill Juan Perón, rebel-flown aircraft bombed the Casa Rosada. A loyalist Meteor shot down a rebel AT-6, while another strafed rebel-held Ezeiza airport. The rebels seized Morón Airport and Air Base, base of the Meteors, and used several captured aircraft to perform multiple attacks against loyalist forces and the Casa Rosada before the rebellion was defeated by day's end.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: A second revolt, the Revolución Libertadora broke out on 16 September 1955, with, again, both sides operating the Meteor. The rebels seized three Meteors. Government Meteors flew strafing attacks against the rebel-held destroyers "Rioja" and "Cervantes", and several landing ships near Rio Santiago on 16 September and attacking Pajas Blancas airport near the city of Córdoba, damaging several Avro Lincoln bombers. The rebel-flown Meteors were used to attack loyalist forces attacking Córdoba, losing one of their number on 19 September to an engine failure caused by use of automobile petrol instead of jet fuel.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The acquisition of North American F-86 Sabres in 1960 allowed the remaining Meteors to be transferred to the ground attack role. In this role, the aircraft were refitted with bomb pylons and rocket rails; the bare metal colour scheme was also discarded for a camouflage scheme.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Argentine Meteors were used to attack rebels during attempted uprisings in September 1962 and April 1963. The type was ultimately withdrawn from service in 1970.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) acquired 113 Meteors between 1946 and 1952, 94 of which were the F.8 variant. The first RAAF Meteor was an F.3 delivered for evaluation in June 1946.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Australia's F.8s saw extensive service during the Korean War with No. 77 Squadron RAAF, part of British Commonwealth Forces Korea. The squadron had personnel from the RAF and other Commonwealth air forces attached to it. It had arrived in Korea equipped with piston-engined Mustangs. To match the threat posed by MiG-15 jet fighters, it was decided to reequip the squadron with Meteors. Jet conversion training was conducted at Iwakuni, Japan, after which the squadron returned to the Korean theatre in April 1951 with about 30 Meteor F.8s and T.7s. The squadron moved to Kimpo Air Base in June, and was declared combat ready the following month. More advanced designs, such as the F-86 Sabre and Hawker P.1081, were considered but would not be available within a realistic time frame; the Meteor proved to be considerably inferior in combat against the MiG-15 in several respects, including speed and manoeuvrability at high altitude.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: On 29 July 1951, 77 Squadron began operating their Meteors on combat missions. The squadron had mainly been trained for ground attack and had difficulty when assigned to bomber escort duty at sub-optimum altitudes. On 29 August 1951, eight Meteors were on escort duty in "MiG Alley" when they were engaged by six MiG-15s; one Meteor was lost and two were damaged. On 27 October, the squadron achieved its first probable followed by two probables six days later. On 1 December the Battle of Sunchon took place between 14 Meteors and at least 20 MiG-15s – in North Korean markings but operated secretly by the elite Soviet 176th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (176 GIAP). The Australians lost three Meteors, with one pilot killed and two captured, while claiming one MiG destroyed and one damaged. Russian records and accounts, which became public after the end of the Cold War, suggested that no MiGs from 176 GIAP were lost.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: At the end of 1951, due to the superiority of the MiGs in air combat – as well as the Meteor's favourable low-level performance and sturdy construction, RAAF commanders had 77 Squadron returned to ground-attack. In February 1952, more than a thousand ground-attack sorties were flown and these continued until May 1952, when 77 Squadron switched to fighter sweeps. The last encounter between the Meteor and the MiG-15 was in March 1953, during which a Meteor piloted by Sergeant John Hale recorded a victory. By the end of the conflict, the squadron had flown 4,836 missions, destroying six MiG-15s, over 3,500 structures and some 1,500 vehicles. About 30 Meteors were lost to enemy action in Korea, the vast majority shot down by anti-aircraft fire on ground-attack operations.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The RAAF began introducing the locally-built CAC Sabre powered by the Rolls-Royce Avon, in 1955, which relegated Meteors to training and secondary duties. A number of Meteors would be assigned to the reserve Citizen Air Force, while others were configured as pilotless drone aircraft or for target towing. No. 75 Squadron RAAF was the last Australian squadron to operate the Meteor; notably, it had operated a three-unit aerobatic team, named "The Meteorites".


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Although Egypt's first order for the Meteor was placed in 1948, the rising tension in the region led to the imposition of a series of arms embargoes. Twelve F Mk.4s were eventually delivered between October 1949 and May 1950, along with three T Mk.7s. Twenty-four F Mk.8s were ordered in 1949, but this order was stopped by an embargo. A further order for 12 ex-RAF F.8s was placed in December 1952, of which four were delivered before the order was cancelled, with the final eight being delivered in 1955, along with three more T Mk.7s. and six NF Mk.13s, all ex-RAF aircraft. Britain had allowed the Meteor sales as part of an effort to foster and support good relations; tensions over the Suez Canal led to arms sales being suspended once again.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Egyptian Meteors participated in the fighting during the Suez Crisis of 1956, typically being used in ground attack missions against Israeli forces. In one incident, an Egyptian Meteor NF Mk.13 claimed to have damaged an RAF Vickers Valiant bomber. An aerial bombing campaign of Egyptian airfields by Anglo-French forces resulted in several aircraft being destroyed on the ground; the Egyptian Air Force subsequently withdrew from combat within the Sinai region.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Meteors were the first jet aircraft of the fledgling Syrian Air Force. It acquired 25 of them between 1952 and 1956. Although the British were willing to supply aircraft, they did not supply combat training or radar. As Syria became more aligned with Gamal Abdel Nasser and Egypt, British support for Meteor operations was withdrawn and Syrian pilots began training with their Egyptian counterparts. During the Suez Crisis, the RAF performed high altitude reconnaissance flights over Syria by English Electric Canberra aircraft from bases in Cyprus. Lacking radar to track the aircraft, the Syrian Air Force developed a ground spotter network that reported information by telephone to intercept the flights. On 6 November 1956, a Syrian Meteor shot down a Canberra of No. 13 Squadron RAF, which crashed in Lebanon. In 1957, Syria began to replace its Meteors with new MiG-17s from the Soviet Union.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The French Air Force was keen to acquire jet aircraft as part of its re-equipment program following the Second World War. In 1953, 25 new-build aircraft were diverted from RAF orders to fulfil a French order; a further 16 ex-RAF NF.11s were purchased in 1954 and delivered between September 1954 and April 1955, these being supplemented by about 14 T Mk.7s. The NF Mk.11s replaced the Mosquito night fighter with the Escadre de Chasse (EC) 30, serving with that Wing until replaced by the Sud Aviation Vautour in 1957. Several Meteors were then transferred to ECN 1/7 in Algeria, which saw combat in the Algerian War, operating from Bône, while others were used for training Vautour night fighter crews. The Vautour was retired from French Air Force service in 1964. Five Meteor NF.11s were transferred to the Centre d’Essais en Vol (Flight Test Centre) in 1958, where they were used as equipment testbeds and chase planes, and were later joined by two NF Mk.13s and two NF Mk.14s. The test aircraft were used in a wide variety of experiments, including radar and missile tests and during the development of Concorde.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Due to tensions between the newly formed nation of Israel and its neighbours, both sides had commenced an arms race which led to jet aircraft being vigorously purchased by various countries in the region. In 1953 Israel ordered four T Mk.7s and 11 F Mk.8s, with delivery continuing until early 1954. The F Mk.8s were modified to carry American HVAR rockets but were otherwise identical to RAF aircraft. A second batch of seven refurbished FR Mk.9s and two more T Mk.7s was delivered in 1955. In 1956, Israel purchased six NF Mk.13s, with three delivered that year, and the remaining three, delayed by an arms embargo, in 1958. Five more T Mk.7s were later purchased, these were converted from ex-Belgian F Mk.4s and were fitted with the Mk.8 tail.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: On 1 September 1955, an Israeli Meteor shot down an Egyptian de Havilland Vampire, the first jet aircraft to be shot down in the theatre. The Meteor played a key role during the Suez Crisis; on 28 October 1956, an Israeli NF.13 took part in Operation Tarnegol, in which it successfully located and shot down an Egyptian Ilyushin Il-14 that had been carrying several high-ranking Egyptian military officers on the eve of the crisis. The operation had intended to shoot down the Il-14 that was supposed to be carrying the supreme commander of the Egyptian armed forces, Abdel Hakim Amer, however a different aircraft had been inadvertently attacked and destroyed instead. After deploying paratroopers east of the Suez Canal, the Israeli Air Force continued to support them on the ground predominantly using its jet aircraft, fearing its propeller-driven aircraft would be vulnerable against Egypt's jet fighters.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: While initially flying combat air patrol missions, the Meteors and other Israeli aircraft could not prevent effective attacks by Egyptian aircraft on the ground forces. Israeli officers came to recognise that the Meteor was outclassed by Egyptian MiG-15s, and subsequently limited the Meteor's employment as a fighter against other aerial adversaries. Following the start of the Anglo-French bombing campaign against Egyptian airbases, the Egyptian Air Force mostly withdrew from combat in the Sinai, allowing Israeli aircraft to operate unhindered.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: The Mk.8s remained in front line service until 1956, and were then used as training aircraft. The NF Mk.13s remained in operational use until 1962.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Late in 1945, two F.3 Meteors were modified for an attempt on the world air speed record. On 7 November 1945 at Herne Bay in Kent, UK, Group Captain Hugh "Willie" Wilson set the first official air speed record by a jet aircraft of TAS. In 1946, Group Captain Edward "Teddy" Donaldson broke this record with a speed of TAS, in "EE549", a Meteor F.4.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: On 4–5 April 1950, Sqn Ldr Janusz Żurakowski set an international speed record London-Copenhagen-London in a production standard F.8 ("VZ468"). Suitably impressed, the Danes later purchased the type.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Another "claim to fame" was the Meteor's ability to perform the "Zurabatic Cartwheel", an aerobatics manoeuvre named after Gloster's acting Chief Test Pilot, it was first demonstrated by Meteor G-7-1 "G-AMCJ" prototype at the 1951 Farnborough Air Show; the Meteor, due to its widely set engines, could have individual engines throttled back and forward to achieve a seemingly stationary vertical cartwheel. Many Meteor pilots went on to "prove their mettle" by attempting the same feat.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: On 7 August 1949, the Meteor III, "EE397", on loan from the RAF and flown by Flight Refuelling Ltd (FRL) test pilot Patrick Hornidge, took off from Tarrant Rushton and, refuelled 10 times by the Lancaster tanker, remained airborne for 12 hours and 3 minutes, receiving of fuel from the tanker in ten tanker contacts and flying an overall distance of , achieving a new jet endurance record.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Meteor F.8 "WA820" was adapted during 1948 to take two Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojets, and from Moreton Valence, on 31 August 1951, established a time-to-height climb record. The pilot was Flt Lt Tom Prickett, of Armstrong Siddeley. A height of 9,843 ft was reached in 1 min 16 sec, 19,685 ft in 1 min 50 sec, 29,500 ft in 2 min 29 sec, and 39,370 ft in 3 min 7 sec. Air Service Training Ltd were responsible for the conversion.


title: Gloster Meteor

text: Although many Meteors survive in museums, collections and on pylons in public spaces, only five remain airworthy.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica (originally Neue Haas Grotesk) is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the famous 19th century (1890s) typeface Akzidenz-Grotesk and other German and Swiss designs. Its use became a hallmark of the International Typographic Style that emerged from the work of Swiss designers in the 1950s and '60s, becoming one of the most popular typefaces of the mid-20th century. Over the years, a wide range of variants have been released in different weights, widths, and sizes, as well as matching designs for a range of non-Latin alphabets. Notable features of Helvetica as originally designed include a high x-height, the termination of strokes on horizontal or vertical lines and an unusually tight spacing between letters, which combine to give it a dense, solid appearance.


title: Helvetica

text: Developed by the "Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei" (Haas Type Foundry) of Münchenstein (Basel), Switzerland, its release was planned to match a trend: a resurgence of interest in turn-of-the-century "grotesque" sans-serifs among European graphic designers, that also saw the release of Univers by Adrian Frutiger the same year. Hoffmann was the president of the Haas Type Foundry, while Miedinger was a freelance graphic designer who had formerly worked as a Haas salesman and designer.


title: Helvetica

text: Miedinger and Hoffmann set out to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, had no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. Originally named Neue Haas Grotesk (New Haas Grotesque), it was rapidly licensed by Linotype and renamed Helvetica in 1960, which in Latin means "Swiss" (from "Helvetia"), capitalising on Switzerland's reputation as a centre of ultra-modern graphic design. A feature-length film directed by Gary Hustwit was released in 2007 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the typeface's introduction in 1957.


title: Helvetica

text: The first version of the typeface (which later became known as Helvetica) was created in by Swiss type designer Max Miedinger. His goal is to design a new sans serif font that can compete in the Swiss market, as a neutral font that should not be given any additional meaning. The main influence on Helvetica was Akzidenz-Grotesk from Berthold; Hoffman's scrapbook of proofs of the design shows careful comparison of test proofs with snippets of Akzidenz-Grotesk. Its 'R' with a curved tail resembles Schelter-Grotesk, another turn-of-the-century sans-serif sold by Haas. Wolfgang Homola comments that in Helvetica "the weight of the stems of the capitals and the lower case is better balanced" than in its influences.


title: Helvetica

text: Attracting considerable attention on its release as "Neue Haas Grotesk" ("Nouvelle Antique Haas" in French-speaking countries), Stempel and Linotype adopted Neue Haas Grotesk for release in hot metal composition, the standard typesetting method at the time for body text, and on the international market.


title: Helvetica

text: In , its name was changed by Haas' German parent company Stempel to "Helvetica" in order to make it more marketable internationally; it comes from the Latin name for the pre-Roman tribes of what became Switzerland. Intending to match the success of Univers, Arthur Ritzel of Stempel redesigned Neue Haas Grotesk into a larger family. The design was popular: Paul Shaw suggests that Helvetica "began to muscle out" Akzidenz-Grotesk in New York City from around summer 1965, when Amsterdam Continental, which imported European typefaces, stopped pushing Akzidenz-Grotesk in its marketing and began to focus on Helvetica instead. It was also made available for phototypesetting systems, as well as in other formats such as Letraset dry transfers and plastic letters, and many phototypesetting imitations and knock-offs were rapidly created by competing phototypesetting companies.


title: Helvetica

text: In the late 1970s and 1980s, Linotype licensed Helvetica to Xerox, Adobe and Apple, guaranteeing its importance in digital printing by making it one of the core fonts of the PostScript page description language. This led to a version being included on Macintosh computers and a metrically-compatible clone, Arial, on Windows computers. The rights to Helvetica are now held by Monotype Imaging, which acquired Linotype; the Neue Haas Grotesk digitisation (discussed below) was co-released with Font Bureau.


title: Helvetica

text: Like many neo-grotesque designs, Helvetica has narrow apertures, which limits its legibility onscreen and at small print sizes. It also has no visible difference between upper-case 'i' and lower-case 'L', although the number 1 is quite identifiable with its flag at top left. Its tight, display-oriented spacing may also pose problems for legibility. Other fonts intended for legibility at small sizes such as Verdana, Meta, Trebuchet, or a monospace font such as Courier, which makes all letters quite wide, may be more appropriate than Helvetica.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica is among the most widely used sans-serif typefaces. Versions exist for Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Urdu, Khmer, and Vietnamese alphabets. Chinese faces have been developed to complement Helvetica.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica is a common choice for commercial wordmarks, including those for 3M (including Scotch Tape), Adult Swim, American Apparel, BASF, Behance, Blaupunkt, BMW, Diaspora, ECM, Funimation, General Motors (until 2021), J. C. Penney, Jeep, Kaiser Permanente, Kawasaki, Knoll, Kroger, LG (until 2015), Lufthansa, Motorola, Nestlé, Oath Inc., Panasonic, Parmalat, Philippine Airlines, Sears, Seiko Epson, Skype, Target, Texaco, Tupperware, Viceland, and Verizon. Apple used Helvetica as the system typeface of iOS until 2015.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica has been widely used by the U.S. government; for example, federal income tax forms are set in Helvetica, and NASA used the type on the Space Shuttle orbiter. Helvetica is also used in the United States television rating system. The Canadian government also uses Helvetica as its identifying typeface, with three variants being used in its corporate identity program, and encourages its use in all federal agencies and websites.


title: Helvetica

text: In the European Union, Helvetica is legally required to be used for health warnings on tobacco products such as cigarettes.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica is commonly used in transportation settings. New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) adopted Helvetica for use in signage in 1989. From 1970 to 1989, the standard font was Standard Medium, an American release of Akzidenz-Grotesk, as defined by Unimark's New York City Transit Authority Graphic Standards Manual. The MTA system is still rife with a proliferation of Helvetica-like fonts, including Arial, in addition to some old signs in Medium Standard, and a few anomalous signs in Helvetica Narrow. Helvetica is also used in the Washington Metro, the Chicago 'L', Philadelphia's SEPTA, and the Madrid Metro. Amtrak used the typeface on the "pointless arrow" logo, and it was adopted by Danish railway company DSB for a time period. In addition, the former state-owned operator of the British railway system developed its own Helvetica-based Rail Alphabet font, which was also adopted by the National Health Service and the British Airports Authority. The Helvetica 77 variation is used in street and house signage in Riga and other municipalities in Latvia, although common road signage in the country uses a version of DIN 1451.


title: Helvetica

text: The typeface was displaced from some uses in the 1990s to the increased availability of other fonts on digital desktop publishing systems, and criticism from type designers including Erik Spiekermann and Martin Majoor, both of whom have criticised the design for its omnipresence and overuse. Majoor has described Helvetica as 'rather cheap' for its failure to move on from the model of Akzidenz-Grotesk.


title: Helvetica

text: IBM used Helvetica Neue as its corporate typeface until 2017, spending over $1m annually on licensing fees. It switched in 2017 to the custom IBM Plex family, concluding that a custom open-source typeface would be more distinctive and practical, as it could be freely distributed and installed without rights issues.


title: Helvetica

text: In 2019, the Switzerland national football team began using Helvetica for its kit, which it wore for the UEFA Euro 2020 tournament.


title: Helvetica

text: Liebherr Group previously used Helvetica Neue typeface as corporate identity until switched to HVD Fabrikat typeface in 2021.


title: Helvetica

text: An early essay on Helvetica's public image as a font used by business and government was written in 1976 by Leslie Savan, a writer on advertising at the "Village Voice". It was later republished in her book "The Sponsored Life".


title: Helvetica

text: In 2007, Linotype GmbH held the Helvetica NOW Poster Contest to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the typeface. Winners were announced in the January 2008 issue of the LinoLetter.


title: Helvetica

text: In 2007, director Gary Hustwit released a documentary film, "Helvetica" (Plexifilm, DVD), to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the typeface. In the film, graphic designer Wim Crouwel said, "Helvetica was a real step from the 19th century typeface... We were impressed by that because it was more neutral, and neutralism was a word that we loved. It should be neutral. It shouldn't have a meaning in itself. The meaning is in the content of the text and not in the typeface." The documentary also presented other designers who associated Helvetica with authority and corporate dominance, and whose rebellion from Helvetica's ubiquity created new styles.


title: Helvetica

text: From April 2007 to March 2008, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City displayed an exhibit called "50 Years of Helvetica". In 2011 the Disseny Hub Barcelona displayed an exhibit called "Helvetica. A New Typeface?". The exhibition included a timeline of Helvetica over the last fifty years, its antecedents and its subsequent influence, including in the local area.


title: Helvetica

text: In 2011, one of Google's April Fools' Day jokes centered on the use of Helvetica. If a user attempted to search for the term "Helvetica" using the search engine, the results would be displayed in the font Comic Sans.


title: Helvetica

text: A large number of variants of Helvetica were rapidly released to expand on its popularity, including new weights and languages. Linotype confessed by the time of a 1976 advertorial that things had become somewhat confused: "the series was not planned as a whole from its conception...the series is not as uniform as Univers".


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica Light was designed by Stempel's artistic director Erich Schultz-Anker, in conjunction with Arthur Ritzel.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica Inserat (German for "advertisement") is a version designed primarily for use in the advertising industry: this is a narrow variant that is tighter than Helvetica Black Condensed. It gives the glyphs an even larger x-height and a more squared appearance, similar to Schmalfette Grotesk. Adobe's release notes date it to 1966 and state that it originated with Stempel.


title: Helvetica

text: Designed by Matthew Carter and Hans-Jürg Hunziker for cold type. It shares some design elements with Helvetica Inserat, but uses a curved tail in Q, downward pointing branch in r, and tilde bottom £. Carter has said that in practice it was designed to be similar to Schmalfette Grotesk and to compete in this role with British designs Impact and Compacta, as this style was popular at the time. Carter, who also later designed Helvetica Greek, had designed a modernised version of Akzidenz-Grotesk for signage at Heathrow in 1961, and commented later "if we'd known about [Helvetica] I'm sure we would have used it, since it's a much better typeface than the one I drew. But the typesetting trade was very conservative then, and new type designs traveled slowly." The family consists of Helvetica Compressed, Helvetica Extra Compressed and Helvetica Ultra Compressed fonts. It has been digitised, for instance in the Adobe Helvetica release.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica Rounded is a version containing rounded stroke terminators, released for bold weights. Linotype's release notes date it to 1978.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica Narrow is a version where its width is between Helvetica Compressed and Helvetica Condensed. The font was developed when printer ROM space was very scarce, so it was created by mathematically squashing Helvetica to 82% of the original width, resulting in distorted letterforms, with vertical strokes narrowed but horizontals unchanged. Because of the distortion problems, Adobe dropped Helvetica Narrow in its release of Helvetica in OpenType format, recommending users choose Helvetica Condensed instead.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica Textbook is an alternate design of the typeface, which uses 'schoolbook' stylistic alternates to increase distinguishability: a seriffed capital 'i' and 'j' to increase distinguishability, a 'q' with a flick upwards and other differences. The 'a', 't' and 'u' are replaced with designs similar to those in geometric sans-serifs such as those found in Futura and Akzidenz-Grotesk Schulbuch. FontShop's FF Schulbuch is similar.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica Greek has gone through several versions. Letraset designed a semi-official version for their dry transfer lettering system, available by 1970, which sold well but was considered unidiomatic by Linotype. Linotype published a 1971 version designed by Matthew Carter which was available for phototypesetting and so for general purpose printing such as extended text. Carter felt in 1974 that the Letraset version was "a poor thing" and Linotype's version was "the real one" but that Letraset's was well-enough accepted in Greece that he felt it had "caused resistance to our version". Linotype published a new version in 2001 designed by John Hudson at Tiro Typeworks.


title: Helvetica

text: The Cyrillic version was designed in-house in the 1970s at D Stempel AG, then critiqued and redesigned in 1992 under the advice of Jovica Veljović, although a pirated version had already been created in 1963 by Russian designers Maxim Zhukov and Yuri Kurbatov.


title: Helvetica

text: Helvetica Neue () is a reworking of the typeface with a more structurally unified set of heights and widths. Other changes include improved legibility, heavier punctuation marks, and increased spacing in the numbers.


title: Helvetica

text: Neue Helvetica uses a numerical design classification scheme, like Univers. The font family is made up of 51 fonts including nine weights in three widths (8 in normal width, 9 in condensed, and 8 in extended width variants) as well as an outline font based on Helvetica 75 Bold Outline (no Textbook or rounded fonts are available). Linotype distributes Neue Helvetica on CD. Helvetica Neue also comes in variants for Central European and Cyrillic text.


title: Helvetica

text: It was developed at D. Stempel AG, a Linotype subsidiary. The studio manager was Wolfgang Schimpf, and his assistant was Reinhard Haus; the manager of the project was René Kerfante. Erik Spiekermann was the design consultant and designed the literature for the launch in 1983. Figures were widened and some condensed weights changed from having nearly flat-sided verticals to a more continuous curve throughout the entire height.


title: Helvetica

text: Designer Christian Schwartz, who would later release his own digitisation of the original Helvetica designs (see below), expressed disappointment with this and other digital releases of Helvetica: "digital Helvetica has always been one-size-fits-all, which leads to unfortunate compromises...the spacing has ended up much looser than Miedinger's wonderfully tight original at display sizes but much too tight for comfortable reading at text sizes."


title: Helvetica

text: iOS used first Helvetica then Helvetica Neue as its system font. All releases of macOS prior to OS X Yosemite used Lucida Grande as the system font. The version of Helvetica Neue used as the system font in OS X 10.10 is specially optimised; Apple's intention is to provide a consistent experience for people who use both iOS and OS X. Apple replaced Helvetica Neue with the similarly looking San Francisco in iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan.


title: Helvetica

text: The family includes eight fonts in eight weights and one width, without italics (25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 95).


title: Helvetica

text: The Arabic glyphs were based on a redesigned Yakout font family from Linotype. Latin kerning and spacing were redesigned to have consistent spacing.


title: Helvetica

text: John Hudson of Tiro Typeworks designed the Hebrew glyphs for the font family, as well as the Cyrillic, and Greek letters.


title: Helvetica

text: It is a version with Latin Extended, Greek, Cyrillic scripts support. Only OpenType CFF font format was released.


title: Helvetica

text: The family includes the fonts from the older Neue Helvetica counterparts, except Neue Helvetica 75 Bold Outline. Additional OpenType features include subscript/superscript.


title: Helvetica

text: Designed by Lebanese designer Nadine Chahine, it is a version with Arabic script support. Only OpenType TTF font format was released.


title: Helvetica

text: It is a version of Neue Helvetica optimised for on-screen use, designed by Akira Kobayashi of Monotype Imaging. Changes from Neue Helvetica include more open spacing. Unlike Helvetica, the capitals are reduced in size so the lower-case ascenders rise above them, a common feature associated with text typefaces.


title: Helvetica

text: The family includes eight fonts in four weights and one width, with complementary italics (45, 46, 55, 56, 65, 66, 75, 76). OpenType features include numerators/denominators, fractions, ligatures, scientific inferiors, subscript/superscript.


title: Helvetica

text: Thai font designer Anuthin Wongsunkakon of Cadson Demak Co. created Thai versions of Helvetica and Neue Helvetica fonts. The design uses loopless terminals in Thai glyphs, which had also been used by Wongsunkakon's previous design, Manop Mai (New Manop).


title: Helvetica

text: The family includes 16 fonts in 8 weights (ultra light, thin, light, regular, medium, bold, heavy, black) with complementary italics.


title: Helvetica

text: Designed by Nadine Chahine, Linotype Design Studio, Monotype Design Studio and Edik Ghabuzyan, it is a version of Neue Helvetica with support of Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Armenian, Georgian and Vietnamese scripts for total 181 languages, and complete support of Unicode block u+0400. Published in November 2017 by Linotype, it was released in Truetype and OpenType CFF formats.


title: Helvetica

text: The family includes 6 fonts in 3 weights (45 Light, 55 Roman, 75 Bold), with complimentary italic. Roman fonts include 1,708 glyphs and 1,285 glyphs for italics.


title: Helvetica

text: Christian Schwartz's digitisation is based on original settings of the metal type and uses the typeface's original name. It was released by Linotype (later Monotype Imaging), Commercial Type, and Font Bureau with an article on the history of Helvetica by Professor Indra Kupferschmid.


title: Helvetica

text: Unlike earlier digitisations, Schwartz created two different optical sizes for body text and display sizes, which have different spacing metrics giving tighter spacing at display size and looser spacing to increase legibility in text. The release includes a number of features not present on digitisations branded as Helvetica, stylistic alternates such as separate punctuation sets for upper- and lower-case text, "modernist" cedilla designs styled to match the comma and reduced-height numbers to blend into extended text. The Text optical size of Neue Haas Grotesk also provides stylistic alternates for a straight-legged upper case "R", while the Display optic size provides stylistic alternates for a straight-legged upper case "R" and a lower case "a" without tail. It originated from an abandoned redesign plan for "The Guardian" newspaper. Writing for "Typographica", Matthew Butterick described the release as better than any previous digital release of Helvetica “it’s never looked better”. Users include Bloomberg Businessweek, the Whitney Museum, and for the album "Midnights", Taylor Swift. Schwartz's company Commercial Type have additionally developed a companion monospaced version, agate version for small sizes and stencil font. The release does not include condensed weights or support for Greek and Cyrillic.


title: Helvetica

text: Users of Windows 10 can download three weights of the Text optical size (Regular, Medium, and Bold), including italics, by enabling the "Pan-European Supplemental Fonts" optional feature. Users of Windows 11 can obtain Neue Haas Grotesk in the same way.


title: Helvetica

text: In April 2019, Monotype announced an update of Neue Helvetica called "Helvetica Now", designed by Jan Hendrik Weber and Charles Nix of Monotype Imaging. The family has one width in three optical sizes, Text, Micro and Display in 8, 6, and 10 weights respectively. The condensed version corresponding to these optical sizes and weights was published later. Features include circled figures and redesigned arrow and @ glyphs. It also includes a number of alternate characters including curled lower-case L, spurless rounded G, a straight-legged R (found in Neue Haas Grotesk), single-story a (found in Helvetica Textbook) and lowercase u without a spur.


title: Helvetica

text: Derivative designs based on Helvetica were rapidly developed, taking advantage of the lack of copyright protection in the phototypesetting font market of the 1960s onward. Some of these were straight clones, simply intended to be direct substitutes. Many of these are almost indistinguishable from Helvetica, while some add subtle differences.


title: Helvetica

text: Substitute Helvetica designs that have survived into or originated during the digital period have included Monotype's Arial, Compugraphic's CG Triumvirate, ParaType's Pragmatica, Bitstream's Swiss 721, URW++'s Nimbus Sans and Scangraphic's Europa Grotesk. Berthold itself responded to Helvetica's popularity with Akzidenz-Grotesk Buch, effectively a Helvetica clone. Besides Helvetica imitations, Helvetica was available in custom derivatives with unusual special-order characters for many years, notably a straight-legged 'R' and round-topped 'A'. CNN uses a custom derivative, "CNN Sans", which has a '1' with a base and larger x-height.


title: Helvetica

text: URW (later URW++) under the leadership of Peter Karow produced a modification of Helvetica called Nimbus Sans. This is an extremely large font family with optical sizes spaced for different sizes of text and other variants such as stencil styles. Florian Hardwig has described its display-oriented styles, with tight spacing, as more reminiscent of Helvetica as used in the 1970s from cold type than any official Helvetica digitisation.


title: Helvetica

text: Monotype's Arial, created for IBM and also used by Microsoft, is indistinguishable by most non-specialists. Matthew Carter, who was a consultant for IBM during its design process, describes it as "a Helvetica clone, based ostensibly on their Grots 215 and 216" (Monotype's old 1920s sans-serif family, popular in British trade printing in the metal type period, and itself based on the Bauer Venus-Grotesk family). Differences include:


title: Helvetica

text: The design was created to substitute for Helvetica: Arial (and many other clones of the period) are metrically identical to the PostScript version of Helvetica, so that a document designed in Helvetica could be displayed and printed correctly without IBM having to pay Linotype for a Helvetica license on its printers.


title: Helvetica

text: Microsoft's "Helv" design, later known as "MS Sans Serif", is a sans-serif typeface that shares many key characteristics to Helvetica, including the horizontally and vertically aligned stroke terminators and more-uniform stroke widths within a glyph.


title: Helvetica

text: Nimbus Sans L, a version of URW's Nimbus Sans spaced to match the standard Linotype/PostScript version of Helvetica, was released under the GNU General Public License in 1996, and donated to the Ghostscript project to create a free PostScript alternative. It (or a derivative) is used by much open-source software such as R as a system font. A derivative of this family known as "TeX Gyre Heros" has been prepared for use in the TeX scientific document preparation software, and since 2009 general under the GUST font license.


title: Helvetica

text: FreeSans is a free font descending from URW++ Nimbus Sans L, which in turn descends from Helvetica. It is one of free (GPL) fonts developed in GNU FreeFont project, first published in 2002.


title: Helvetica

text: Liberation Sans is a metrically equivalent font to Arial developed by Steve Matteson at Ascender and published by Red Hat under the SIL Open Font License. It is used in some Linux distributions as default font replacement for Arial. Oracle funded the additional development of Liberation Sans Narrow in 2010. Google commissioned a variation named Arimo for ChromeOS.


title: Helvetica

text: Much more loosely, Roboto was developed by Christian Robertson of Google as the system font for its Android operating system; this has a more condensed design with the influence of straight-sided geometric designs like DIN 1451.


title: Helvetica

text: Some fonts based on Helvetica are intended for different purposes and have clearly different designs. Digital-period font designer Ray Larabie has commented that in the 1970s "everyone was modifying Helvetica with funky curls, mixed-case and effects". Indeed, in one 1973 competition to design new fonts, three of the 20 winners were decorative designs inspired by Helvetica.