De Havilland Vampire. Part One. Oceanian Users

 

The de Havilland Vampire ir a British jet fighter developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), but it was also exported all around the world. In this post we're covering the Oceanian users of the Vampire:

• Australia: In 1945 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) decided that their first jet-powered fighter would be a variant of the Vampire built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) and powered by the Rolls-Royce Nene engine which would also be manufactured under license in Australia. 
  After the acquisition of three Vampires Mk.1 from the RAF to gain jet-aircraft experience, on 29th June 1949 the first CAC F.30 flew for the first time. This was followed by a total of 56 machines delivered to the RAAF between September 1949 and July 1952. In March 1952 No.2 Operational Training Unit (OTU) was formed as a jet-training unit at Williamtown, New South Wales.
  Nos. 75 and 76 Squadrons were formed in May 1952 as part of No. 78 Wing RAAF based at Williamtown. In July that unit was moved to Malta to support home-based units involved in the Middle-East crisis, this time, however with Vampires loaned by the RAF so the RAAF didn't have to commit their new aircraft. 
  The next batch of 23 Australian-built Vampires were known as F.31 (AKA FB.31), with 28 additional machines started as F.30 but upgraded to F.31 during manufacturing process. This F.31 variant had strengthened and clipped wings and was introduced during 1956. During October 1951 two F.30 were tested for a hypothetical FB.32 variant with enlarged air intakes and ejection seat. This project was, however, cancelled after one year and a half.  During 1955-1956 around 54 F.31 were converted to target-tugs and painted with yellow and black diagonal bands on every surface.
  In 1961 the Vampire was withdrawn from service with the RAAF and most were scrapped, used as ground instructional frames or sold to private owners.
  Back in 1951 the RAAF ordered 36 Vampire T.33 trainers, which was the Australian equivalent to the T.11. The last T.33 was modified to incorporate ejection seats, clear-view canopy, increased fuel capacity and dorsal fairings. A total of 68 T.33 were ordered in 1955. Some T.33 were retrofitted with those new features and received the denomination of T.35A. 
  The final RAAF Vampire sortie took place on 18th September 1970 after 18 years in service. 
  The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ordered some all-weather Sea Venoms (a much improved version of the Vampire) and, in order to provide dual training, they acquired five T.33 from the RAAF. They were re-designated as Vampire T.34 and were delivered between 1954 and 1958. They were all modified to T.35A standard and were designated as T.34A. All RAN Vampires were kept in service until 5th October 1970.
• New Zealand: During the post-war years, the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) was undergoing a modernization process, for which they ordered 18 Vampire FB.52 (the export variant given to the FB.6). These machines, built at Chester by Fairey Aviation, were delivered between October 1950 and August 1951. No. 14 Squadron RNZAF, with base at Ohakea, was the first one to operate the Vampire.
  Six additional T.55 machines were ordered in 1951 and were delivered between July and December 1952. These were of the earlier type with framed canopy and no ejection seats. Eight additional FB.52 were ordered in 1952, but it was cancelled as the need was filled by refitting eight ex-RAF FB.Mk.5 machines which were delivered between July and September 1953. 
  Being part of the Commonwealth Strategic Reserve, No. 14 Squadron was rebased to Cyprus on 7th October 1952. Their FB.52 were handed over to No. 75 Squadron and, when based in Cyprus, they received on loan 29 FB.Mk.9 machines. They also employed the T.11. This unit was also deployed to RAF Tengah, in Malaya to support in 1955 'Operation Firedog'. Those Vampires were replaced by Venoms Mk.1 in November 1955. 
  The New Zealand Territorial Air Force (NZTAF) had three squadrons equipped with the North-American P-51 that were to be replaced by the Vampire in 1955. However, this implied the need for a jet-trainer so, that same year five more ex-RAF T.11s were bought. Those were improved models with clear-view canopy and ejection seats and were delivered between December 1955 and September 1956. 
  In order to perform single-seat training, 21 additional Vampire FB.Mk.5 were ordered. Those machines were shipped together with some sets of FB.Mk.9 wings to allow retrofitting 
  During 1955-1956 the RNZAF bought four additional Vampires Mk.1, Mk.3 and Mk.9 to be used as ground instructional frames. During this time 23 RNZAF Vampires were withdrawn from service to be used as ground frames too. 
  NZTAF was disbanded in 1957 and No. 75 Squadron was re-equipped with the English Electric Canberra, so a lot of Vampires were no longer needed and were put into storage. Some few of them flew with the Fighter Operational Conversion Unit (FOCU) until June 1958 when it was disbanded but, it operated de facto until early 1960.
  This unit was replaced by the Bomber Operational Conversion Unit (BOCU) and they operated two Vampire FB.Mk.5 and six T.11 for training and co-operation duties.
  No.75 Squadron returned from RAF Tengah in March 1962 and was established with 8 FB.Mk.5 and four T.11 to provide the same training as the BOCU, which was disbanded shortly after.
  Some few Vampires were still used until 15th December 1972, when they were finally, flown to depot at RNZAF Woodbourne, Blenheim. 

Sources:

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

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

Fairey Gannet, part one, foreign users

 

The Fairey Gannet was a British carrier-borne aircraft of the post Second World War. It was a mid-wing monoplane with a tricycle undercarriage, a crew of three and a double turboprop engine driving two contra-rotating propellers. 

It was used by many non-British users:

• Australia: The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) decided to purchase the Fairey Gannet in the early 1950s for use on board on the soon to be commissioned HMAS Melbourne (R21) aircraft carrier. Six RAN aircrew went to the United Kingdom in early 1955 to be trained on operating the Gannet at the Royal Navy Air Station (RNAS) Eglinton, in Northern Ireland. 
  Later, two RAN Gannet squadrons, were formed at RNAS Culdrose, in Cornwall, and later, on 23rd August 1955, they were officially formed as 816 and 817 Squadrons. On 8th March 1956 HMAS Melbourne arrived at Glasgow, Scotland and the two Gannet squadrons (24 machines in total) were loaded on board, together with two squadrons of de Havilland Sea Venom fighters and two Bristol Sycamore helicopters for use in the RAN. Then, HMAS Melbourne sailed to Australia and in early May 1956 she arrived in Jervis Bay where the aircraft were unloaded and transported by road to the Naval Air Station at Nowra, in New South Wales. 
  Ten additional Gannets were also acquired to replace losses due to accidents. On 18th August 1958 , one squadron, 817 was decommissioned, leaving 816 squadron the only one to operate the Gannet in Australia. Three Gannet T.2 (dual control trainers) were also purchased in 1957 and one AS.1 was later converted into a T.5 training aircraft, which was operated by 724 and 725 squadrons.
  The Gannets conducted regular exercises on board HMAS Melbourne, in Australian and South-East Asian waters, as well as being part of the Far East strategic reserve, where they were employed for surveillance and reconnaissance duties during the Malayan Emergency and the Indonesian Confrontation. HMAS Melbourne was also part of the escort the fast troop transport ship HMAS Sydney (R17) on her first deployment to South Vietnam in 1965-1966. Fifteen of the thirty-seven purchased Gannets, were lost in accidents and a total of six crew members were killed. After having served for more than ten years, in July 1967 the Gannet was withdrawn from front line service as, by then, they were redundant and were being replaced by either the Westland Wessex helicopter with its dipping sonar and/or Grumman S-2E/G Tracker with its high-tech electronics and anti-submarine equipment.
  Nowadays, some few Gannets are shown as museum aircraft, but most of them were scrapped or re-purposed at Nowra for fire-fighting training.
• West Germany: The Federal Republic of Germany operated the Gannet too. In 1956 the German Federal Armed Forces were created as a member of the NATO alliance. West Germany's naval interests lay mainly in the Baltic Sea and, as Soviet and Warsaw Pact submarines would have to traverse the shallow Baltic approaches to reach the open North Sea, NATO planners assigned West Germany with an important anti-submarine role within the alliance. Britain supplied most of the main equipment of the embryonic Marineflieger (German Naval Air Arm) with 15 Gannet AS.4 and one T.5 ordered in 1956. 
  As time was essential, the aircraft were withdrawn from previous existing Admiralty contracts and pilot conversion training was undertook at White Waltham airfield, in Berkshire during early 1958 and operational crew training was carried out at RNAS Eglinton, where, in order to accelerate crew training a single T.5 was delivered on 6th March 1958 and the Bundesmarine's Gannet Squadron MFG 1/1 was formed two months later. 
  After having been commissioned, the squadron flew to its new home base of Schleswig in late July 1958 where it operated as part Marinefliegergeschwader 1 (MFG 1) on anti-submarine and anti-shipping duties as tasked by NATO's Commander Baltic Approaches (COMBALTAP). The Gannets serving with the MFG 1 they generally used their construction numbers as a permanent identity and were identified within their unit by a two-letter and three figure fuselage code ranging from 'UA+101' (where the letter U indicated the airplane's anti-submarine role and the letter A indicating MFG 1) to UA+115. The T.5 received the unusual figure code of UA+99.
  The squadron was later rebased to Nordholz, in Lower Saxony and transferred to MFG 3 control. Under this new command, the Gannets retained their 'UA' codes instead of the unit's 'UC'. One aircraft, UA+115 was lost to an accident but the remaining Gannets continued to serve with the Marineflieger until their task was taken over by helicopters and the Breguet Br.1150 Atlantic patrol aircraft. The first Br.1150 Atlantic arrived in Nordholz in December 1965 and the Gannets were eventually assigned for storage from June the following year. Switzerland showed some interest to use them as target tows, but as original contract prohibited sale of the aircraft to third parties, nothing came of this. Most of German Gannets were scrapped, but some of them were kept as museum exhibits.
• Indonesia: Indonesia ordered 18 Gannet AS.4 and some T.2 together with ground instruction frames directly from Fairey in January 1959. This came because of Dutch pressures to France to not sell the Breguet Br.1050 Alize as the Dutch foresaw problems with their former colony. However, the UK approved the sale to the Indonesian Air Force.
  Fairey bought back 20 surplus Gannet AS.1 and two T.2s airframe from the Admiralty to fulfill the contract. Those AS.1 were updated to AS.4 standards and some other AS.4 were bought. 
  After undergoing official training at White Waltham, and suffering several delays because of political and military reasons (Indonesia had invaded Western Papua-New Guinea with subsequent clashes with Dutch forces in the region), it wasn't until 18th January 1962 that Indonesian Gannets were shipped to the Asian country. 
  Under Indonesian service the Gannets were used for coastal reconnaissance missions, supporting Indonesian forces moving east through the archipelago. When Malaysia achieved independence in September 1963, Indonesia advanced into North Borneo too and this caused an armed response from Britaim which lasted until 1966. During this period, the West called off every arms trade with Indonesia, and as spare supplies ran off, Indonesian Gannets began to steadily fall. The Indonesian government then turned to the USSR for military help and by 1971 very few Gannets were still in service. The last one was withdraw shortly afterwards and nowadays one is conserved in Indonesian Armed Forces' Museum in Jakarta.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairey_Gannet

2. https://www.navy.gov.au/aircraft/fairey-gannet-as14

3. https://www.bredow-web.de/Luftwaffenmuseum/Transport/FAIREY-GANNET/fairey-gannet.html (translated)

4. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 23 - Fairey Gannet

Aermacchi M.B.326, Australian users.

Today, in our last post before holidays (we'll be back soon) we cover the Royal Australian Air Force's usage of this Italian trainer.
Back in the mid-1960s a total of 97 M.B.326 were ordered by the Royal Australian Air Force to Aermacchi. They were designated as M.B.326H and 12 were delivered by Aermacchi, 18 assembled in Australia and 67 were built by both the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation and Hawker Aircraft with the designation of CA-30.
The M.G.326H was basically like the M.B.326G but it was equipped with improved avionics.
It was the main trainer for both the RAAF and the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm , in fact they served from 1970 until, oficially 1989 and they were very popular and liked by the pilots thanks to its easy handling. However their service was cut short due to estructural fatigue problems. In order to cope with those problems, the RAN Fleet Air Arm, had a program to extend its life in the 1980s that leaded to the re-wing of some aircrafts after some fatigue related crashes. Even though, they served, together with the Pilatus PC-9 trainers and the very last one of the MB.326H wasn't withdrawn until 2001 when they were replaced by the BAE Hawk 127.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aermacchi_MB-326
2. https://www.airforce.gov.au/raafmuseum/research/aircraft/series3/A7.htm
3. http://www.flugzeuginfo.net/acdata_php/acdata_mb326_en.php