De Havilland Vampire. Part Seventeen. British users, part five.

 

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

The Vampire NF.10 (a radar-equipped night fighter variant, powered by the Goblin engine) entered service with the RAF in 1951 with three squadrons, Nos. 23, 25 and 151 until 1954. It was, however, often flown both in day and night times. The NF.10 was replaced by the de Havilland Venom NF.2 and its sub-variants, in the night fighter role. 

After the Vampires were replaced by the Venoms, they underwent trainer conversion to the NF.(T) 10 standard to serve in the Central Navigation and Control School at RAF Shawbury, Shropshire. By the year 1953 the Vampire FB.5 was considered to be obsolete as it couldn't compete with the technological advanced introduced in the Gloster Meteor F.8, so the RAF decided to relegate the Vampire to advanced training roles in the mid-1950s and the type was, generally, out of service by the end of the decade.

The Sea Vampire flew for the first time on 15th October 1948. Two prototypes soon followed by 18 production machines, which were used to gain experience in carrier operations before the arrival of the two-seater Vampire T.22 trainer (a navalized variant of the T.55 trainer built for the Fleet Air Arm). The Sea Vampire served initially with 700 and 702 Naval Air Squadrons, replacing their piston-powered de Havilland Sea Hornets. 

Sources:

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

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