de Havilland Vampire. Part Four. More African Users.

 

The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company that was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and some other users around the globe, among them, the following ones:

• South Africa: Ten Vampire FB.5 were ordered by the South African Air Force (SAAF) in 1949. They were built at English Electric Company's factory at Preston, Lancashire and were shipped in two batches of five, the first in January 1950 and the second one in June. The ones of the first batch were sent unassembled and were re-assembled at Ysterplaat , Cape Town, on 8th February. Shortly later a training programme was launched to train SAAF pilots in jet flying. 
  Ten additional FB.52s were delivered in 1951 and, in order to provide additional training, six T.55 (the export variant of the T.11) were ordered and arrived in May 1952. These were of the early sub-variant with framed canopy and no ejection seats. Twenty-one additional standard T.55 were ordered, built at Chester, Cheshire, and delivered between February 1954 and June 1955.
  In order to re-equip No.2 Squadron on its return from Korea, 30 new Vampire FB.Mk.9 were ordered in 1953. Anyway, with the arrival of the Canadair Sabres in 1956, most Vampires were withdrawn from service and put into storage, to be finally scrapped in 1967. Apparently 36 of them were sold to the neighboring Rhodesia.
  Two T.55 were still operational serving as test beds for electronic equipment at the Test Flight and Development Centre in Waterkloof  until February 1985.
• Somalia: The Somalian Air Force operated one ex-Iraqi T.55 trainer in 1964. 
• Zimbabwe: The Air Force of Zimbabwe operated some Vampire FB.Mk.9 and T.55 inherited from the Rhodesian Air Force. They served with No.2 Squadron, based at Gweru Thornhill and, since they were obsolete, they were replaced during the 1980s by the BAE Systems Hawk. 

Sources:

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

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

3rd Hall Park Books - Warpaint 27 - De Havilland Vampire

Chengdu JJ-5/FT-5 - Foreign Users

The Chengdu JJ-5 is a twin-seater trainer variant of the Shenyang/Chengdu J-5 designed and developed by Chengdu Aircraft Corporation. It mixed the airframe of the J-5, the airbrakes from the J-5A and the tandem twin-seat cockpit section of the JJ-2 (the Chinese copy of the MiG-15UTI trainer). When exported it was designated as Chengdu FT-5. It was exported to many countries:

• Albania: Together with the first Chinese aircraft received, the Shenyang F-5, the Albanian Air Force got some FT-5 which were used as trainers and even as attack aircraft during the Albanian Civil War in 1997. Nowadays they're put into storage together with the F-5s.
• Bangladesh: After achieving their independence in 1971, the People's Liberation Army Air Force supplied the Bangladesh with some FT-5s which, by 1980 all of them were retired as the more advanced Chengdu FT-7 became available.
• Pakistan: Pakistan's Air Force No.1 Fighter Conversion Unit operated at least 25 FT-5 trainers from 1975 until 2012 when they were replaced by locally built Karakorum K-8 trainer.
• Sri-Lanka: The FT-5 was the main jet familiarisation trainer for Sri-Lankan pilots from 1990, when they were bought, until 2001 when they were replaced by the Karakorum K-8.
• Zimbabwe: The Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) acquired some FT-5 in the 1980s which were used as intermediate trainers. Nowadays just one of them is in AFZ's inventory, into storage status.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_J-5

2. https://xairforces.net/airforces.asp?id=37#.XilQTa7QiUk

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

4. https://www.airliners.net/photo/Sri-Lanka-Air-Force/Shenyang-FT-5/1760071

5. Hikoki Publications - Chinese Aircraft - China's Aviation History since 1951

6. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Shenyang J-5, various users

The Shenyang J-5 was used not just by North Vietnam, but by many other countries all around the globe.

• Somalia: Many F-5s were serving with the Somalian Air Corps and were lost in 1977 during the Ogaden War. 
• Sudan: The Sudanese Air Force received some F-5s, together with some MiG-17s, after achieving independence in the mid-1950s. They were mainly used for ground attack missions against rebels with limited air defences. 
• Tanzania: It's known that the Tanzanian Air Force used F-5s for ground attack missions during the Uganda-Tanzania War in 1977-1978. They were bought shortly after independence in 1961. 
• Zimbabwe: Some of the first fighters in the Zimbabwe Air Force were F-5s which were piloted by Pakistani pilots. They were acquired in the 1970s, after having declared independence and nowadays they're not in the active role no more. As we couldn't find pictures of the F-5 under Zimbabwean use, the drawing should be considered as speculative.
• Albania: After the Soviet-Albanian split in 1961, the Albanian government sought for new military suppliers, so they turned their heads to China, who sold them loads of armament during the 1960s. Among the first military aid sold to Albania there were F-5 jets. They were kept in active use wheel until April 1999 when they were deployed in the north against the Yugoslav Air Incursion. The role of the F-5 was relatively unsuccessful due to its subsonic speed, and the aircraft were soon relegated once the Shenyang F-6 (the Chinese version of the Soviet MiG-19) was available, so the F-5 was put into storage.
• United States of America: In the 1980s the United States bought a number of J-5 aircraft, together with some FT-2 trainers from China via the Combat Core Certification Professionals Company. Those aircraft were used in a "mobile threat" test program at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, operated by the 4477th "Red Hats" Test and Evaluation Squadron of the United States Air Force. Now are believed to be in storage.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenyang_J-5

2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters