de Havilland Vampire. Part Eleven. Portuguese and Swiss users.

 

The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter designed and developed by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was mainly used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) but also by many other users all around the world, among them, the following ones:

• Portugal: Two early Vampires T.55 with framed canopy and no ejection seats were ordered and delivered with evaluation purposes  in 1952. The Portuguese Air Force (PAF) however, decided towards the Lockheed T-33A as their main jet trainer and the two T.55s were part of a jet training squadron  until 1961 when they were written off and sold to Katanga where they were delivered via South Africa in September.
  One Vampire FB.Mk.9, previously belonged to the South African Air Force, was donated to the Portuguese Air Museum at Averca. 

• Switzerland: The Swiss Air Force (SAF) was one of the most extensive users of the Vampire, together with the RAF. They operated the Vampire for a total of 45 years. Between October 1945 and March 1946 a technical delegation made a series of visits to the UK, where they agreed that the Vampire would meet their requirements for a jet fighter.
  Three Vampire F.Mk.1 were procured for trials between July 1946 and July 1947. These were flown extensively by the Swiss and were kept in active until 10th April 1961.
  Seventy-five Vampire FB.Mk.6 were ordered in late 1948 and they were delivered during the following year. In May 1950 the wing of the SAF equipped with Vampires was declared operational. One-hundred more machines were also ordered in 1949 but an agreement was reached to manufacture them under license at Emmen, Lucerne. 
  One NF.10 demonstrator was acquired in early 1951 and was employed for aerial radar and navigation techniques training. It was also used as a testbed for navigation and radio equipment and eventually ended its days as a ground instructional frame in the early 1960s.
  Three Vampires T.11s were ordered for evaluation purposes in 1953 and were assembled at Emmen between September 1953 and January 1954. Seven additional T.11s were ordered. These were of the late kind, fitted with ejection seats. Twenty Vampires T.11s were also built at Emmen between July 1958 and June 1959. In as late as 1967 the SAF also bought some surplus T.11 from the RAF. They were refurbished at Emmen to T.55 standard and were delivered by November 1969. 
  The de Havilland Venom took over the fighter role in 1954 and the Vampires were modified to the fighter-bomber role equipped with either underwing bombs or rockets. In 1960 every Swiss T.11 was required to be updated to new safety standard with new canopies and ejection seats. In this year too, three more FB.Mk.6 were assembled from spare parts left at Emmen. In 1971 and 1974 fifty-nine FB.Mk.6 were updated with avionic upgrades and a new UHF radio which was mounted in a re-profiled nose, similar to the of the de Havilland Venom. 
  Various T.55s were also subject to upgrade programmes equip them with Electronic Counter Measures (ECM) devices between 1966 and 1979 while some other were modified to carry the AS-11 missile and TV cameras.
  Every single-seat Vampire was relegated to the trainer role in 1968 when the first Hawker Hunters arrived. In 1978 twelve FB.Mk.6 were assigned to the Zielfliegerkorps 5 (Aerial Target Corps) to serve as target for anti-air units. 
  The Vampire wasn't officially retired from service with the SAF until 12th June 1990 and by that date there were still 59 single-seat and 30 trainers on strength. Most of them were sold to private buyers in the UK, USA and Scandinavia.

Sources:

1st Hall Park Books - Warpaint 27 - De Havilland Vampire

2nd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Vampire

3rd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_de_Havilland_Vampire_operators

Junkers Ju.52/3m in Switzerland

 The Junkers Ju.52/3m is a German cargo plane that was manufactured from 1931 until the early 1950s, though not by Junkers from 1945 onwards and saw service with numerous users all around the globe.

Switzerland was one of those users when in October 1939, the Swiss Air Force received three Ju.52/3mg4e for navigator and observer training duties. Those three Junkers, which bore the serial numbers 6580, 6595 and 6610, were re-registered in Swiss registrations, A-701/HB-HOS, A-702/ HB-HOT and A-703/HB-HOP respectively.

They were employed in transport duties apart from their original training purpose. 

After World War 2, they suffered some minor alterations; the main landing gears were replaced with those built by Amiot for the AAC.1 Toucan and the tail wheel was replaced with spare nose wheels from De Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.6 which Switzerland bought in 1946. The Swiss Junkers were kept in active with the Swiss Air Force until September 1982, for 43 straight years.

All three of them were sold to the company Ju-Air at Dübendorf, which also bought additional CASA 352/A. One of the original Ju.52/3mg4e, HB-HOT suffered an unfortunate crash on 4th August 2018 when on a sightseeing flight, killing all 20 people on board.

 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Junkers_Ju_52_operators

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_of_the_Swiss_Air_Force

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Junkers_Ju_52

4. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action  186 - Junkers Ju-52 in Action

EKW D.3801

 

The EKW (Eidgenpssisches Flugzeugwerke) was a Swiss-made variant of the French Morane-Saulnier Ms.412 fighter.

In the late 1930s, just before the beginning of the World War 2, the Swiss Air Force acquired some Morane-Saulnier Ms.406H fighters which were designed specifically for export to Switzerland (hence the letter H -for "Helvétique"- in the denomination) and even produced some of them under license, called EKW D.3800 (which will be the subject of a future post). 

The D.3801 was an improved version of the regular D.3800 powered by a single Hispano-Suiza 12Y-51 engine which could deliver 1.050 hp of power at take-off and was armed with four 7.5 mm machine guns placed in the wings plus a 20 mm Hispano-Suiza autocannon mounted in the engine and firing through the propeller hub. Additionally, a more simple type of fixed radiator was also employed instead of the original retractable one. As the France was defeated in June 1940 many French engineers moved on to Switzerland to finish the project. 

The first prototype flew for the first time in October 1940 and by early 1941 the type was being delivered to the Swiss Air Force's fighter squadrons. The type was manufactured throughout the entire War, until 1945, making the D.3801 one of the main Swiss fighters with 207 machines being completed. Further aircraft, a total of 17, were manufactured after the war, in 1947-1948 and delivered to the Swiss Air Force, however, but that time the World War 2 was all but over and the D.3801 was seriously obsolete. 

The D.3801 ended up serving as an advanced trainer for the Swiss Air Force and some were used as target tugs in 1959. 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_M.S.406

2. https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=2062

3. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/118311/CHE-EKW-D-3801

4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters