Michael Daunt

Neill Michael Daunt OBE (23 October 1909 – 26 July 1991) was a British test pilot; the first person to fly the Gloster Meteor in March 1943, Britain's first production jet aircraft.

The early jet aircraft for Gloster were designed and built at the Bentham Works in Gloucestershire.

On 7 February 1941, the Minister of Aircraft Production ordered twelve (reduced to eight later) Meteor prototypes.

Michael Daunt flew the first production (military) version of the Meteor Mk 1, equipped with four 20mm Hispano cannon, EE210/G, on 12 June 1944.

The Messerschmitt Me 262 V3 prototype first flew on 18 July 1942 at Leipheim with the Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow jet engine, piloted by Fritz Wendel.

Michael Daunt became a farmer after the war in south-west Oxfordshire, close to what is today the M40 motorway.

After divorce, he married Elspeth Lloyd, a member of the banking family, with whom he had a son Michael Seton (1942-2023) who became a well-known writer on fishing and country matters.

He married thirdly Monica Claire Parnell in 1947 in Ploughley Rural District, and they had a daughter on 5 November 1948 and a son on 10 June 1950.

Meteor DG202 , the second Meteor prototype with Power Jets engines, at the RAF Museum. [ 2 ]