De Havilland Vampire. Part Eighteen. British users, part six.

 

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

Many squadrons of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force (RAxF) employed the Vampire, among them, the following ones:

• No. 502 Squadron: The Ulster Squadron transitioned from their piston engined Supermarine Spitfire F.22 to the Vampire FB.5 in June 1951, which were reinforced with additional FB.9 in July 1954. The squadron kept flying both types until the RAxF was disbanded, along with all its squadrons on 10th March 1957.
• No. 603 Squadron: This squadron received the Vampire in May 1951. It was kept in active until it was disbanded in March 1957.
• No.605 Squadron: This unit transitioned from a night intruder squadron to a day fighter one, after World War 2. Stationed at RAF Honiley (Warwickshire) they received the Vampire F.1 in July 1948 to replace their de Havilland Mosquitoes NF.30 (the night fighter variant of the Mosquito). The Vampires F.1 were replaced by the more advanced FB.5 in May 1951. They were kept in active until the RAxF squadrons were disbanded on 10th March 1957.
• No. 612 Squadron: This unit received the Vampire in June 1951. They were based in Scotland, at RAF Leuchars (Fife), RAF Edzell (Angus) and finally RAF Dyce (Aberdeenshire) until it was disbanded in March 1957.
• No. 613 Squadron: This squadron was equipped with the Vampire FB.5 in February 1951, although in 1949 they operated a small number of Vampires F.1. The Vampires were flown together with the Gloster Meteor T.7 (the trainer variant of the Meteor). They had also just a single FB.9 in inventory, between June 1954 and December 1956 when the FB.9 suffered an accident killing its pilot. The squadron was based at RAF Ringway (Cheshire) and was disbanded in March 1957.

Sources:

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

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

3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._502_Squadron_RAF

4th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._603_Squadron_RAF

5th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._605_Squadron_RAF

6th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._612_Squadron_RAF

7th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._613_Squadron_RAF