De Havilland Vampire. Part Fifteen. British users, part three.

 

The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to enter service with the Royal Air Force (RAF).

It was initially powered by the Halford H1 engine, known as the de Havilland Goblin in its production variant, as it was designed by Frank Halford and manufactured by de Havilland. This engine, a centrifugal-flow type, was superseded in 1949 by the slimmer axial-flow units. 

Due to the initial high fuel consumption of the Goblin engine, early models of the Vampires had very limited range. This problem was, however, very common in every first generation jet-fighter aircraft. As a result, later models featured increased internal fuel capacity. The H1 engine remained practically unchanged for 13 years, since its inception in 1941 and was considered to be one of the most reliable turbojet engines. Successive models featured increased turbine temperature and thrust.

The Goblin I (or Halford H1) was initially rated at 2.100 lbf (9.3 kN) of thrust. This H1 powered most of Vampires Mk. I, however, the latest batch of the Mk. I featured the improved Goblin II and the Vampire Mk. III was powered by the Goblin III. By the mid-1950s an export variant, Goblin Mk. 35 was available, rated at 3.500 lbf (15 .5 kN).

The Vampire was light and sensitive to control as its elevator arrangement enabled generous acceleration from relatively little control inputs, together with highly balanced ailerons that could enable high roll rates. The rudder, however, required more vigorous actuation to achieve meaningful effect. This meant a problem for pilots converted from piston-engines as they found themselves having to adapt to slower acceleration rates of turbojet engines and its corresponding need to moderate rapid throttle movements to avoid compression stalls. 

During the Malayan Emergency, some Vampires were used in combat operations during the late 1940s and the early 1950s, specially the FB.5 which was widely employed as a fighter bomber thanks to its underwing combination of bombs and rockets, against Communist Malayan Guerrillas often located in remote jungle areas. The FB.5 was also the most produced variant of the Vampire with 473 machines having been produced. 

Sources:

1st https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Vampire

2nd Hall Park Books - Warpaint 27 - De Havilland Vampire