FIRST JET AIRCRAFT TO LAND IN SRI LANKA Compiled – By Gp Capt Kumar Kirinde, SLAF (Retd) Annex A – Brief on Gloster Meteor, Page 10 Annex B – Brief on De Havilland Vampire, Page 11 Based on an article by aviation historian and writer Roger Thiedeman in the Sri Lanka Sunday Times of January 30, 2000; plus other material supplied and written by Roger. The day jet planes first came to Ceylon – by Roger Thiedeman (Sri Lanka Sunday Times, January 30, 2000) https://www.sundaytimes.lk/000130/plus10.html Passengers, visitors and those who work at Katunayake airport would be accustomed to the sound of jetliners landing and taking off. The shrill, piercing whine or deafening roar of jet engines is today a familiar backdrop to the bustling activity at Colombo’s aerial gateway. But there was a time when Katunayake knew only the more genteel drone of piston engines and the hum of whirling ...

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