Shock-stalled

The Meteor, Group Captain [Hugh Joseph] Wilson said, puts its nose up at the shock stall, so that had the aircraft become fully shock stalled during the record runs, the pilot would probably have been able to recover without hitting the sea. But at the speeds achieved—the fastest run recorded being 983 kilometers or 611 m.p.h.—only parts of the Meteor (for instance, the area over the wind screen) were shock stalled.

This is only partially true, since drag increase can be overcome by brute force on the part of the propulsion system, but ignorance of the rather delicate stability and control problems when flying in a shock-stalled condition will probably result in disaster.

At about Mach 0.9 a marked recovery in lift occurred, suggesting that the separated ("shock-stalled") flow tended to disappear as Mach 1 was approached.

Some parts of both Wilson's and Greenwood's aircraft were shock-stalled, which means that all normal lift characteristics were upset during the run.