De Havilland Vampire. Part Twenty. British users, part eight.

 

The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft company. It was the second jet fighter to enter service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and was used by many squadrons through the 1950s until its usage went gradually down until it was replaced by more modern types, namely the de Havilland Venom or, in some cases, the Hawker Hunter.

Some of those squadrons were the following ones:

• No. 3 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation Unit: This unit employed some outdated Vampire FB.9s at RAF Exeter. 
• No.5 Flying Training School: This formation unit employed the T.11 (together with some T.5 - the advanced trainer variant of the FB.5) from June 1954 until March 1962 when they were replaced by the Vickers Varsity. The initial aim of the unit was to convert trainee pilots to jet aircraft.
• No. 19 Squadron: This squadron, officially equipped with the Gloster Meteor, employed some T.11 during the late 1950s.
• No. 43 Squadron: The China-British Squadron employed some T.11 trainers when stationed at RAF Fife, Scotland. For some time they were shared with No.151 Squadron.
• No. 62 Squadron: Apparently this unit had in service some T.11 trainers before it was reformed as a pure missile unit. 
• No.151 Squadron: This unit used the T.11 at Scotland, shared with the No.43 Squadron for a brief period of time.
• No.219 Squadron: When this unit transitioned to the de Havilland Venom NF.2 (The night fighter variant of the Venom), they employed some T.11s as trainers during the year 1958.
• Royal Air Force Flying College: The RAF Flying College at Cranwell employed some outdated FB.9 as advanced trainers during the late 1950s.
• Central Flying School: The Central Flying School employed some T.11 trainers during the 1960s and into the early 1970s.

Some Royal Navy units employed the type as well, like the Flag Officer Flying Training or various station flights like RNAS Lossiemouth or RNAS Brawdy, among others, which employed the Sea Vampire T.22 (the naval trainer variant of the regular T.11) well into the 1960s.

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._5_Flying_Training_School_RAF

4th https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Flying_School

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

De Havilland Vampire. Part Sixteen. British users, part four.

 

The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet-fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. 

In terms of power/weight ratio, the Vampire showed good numbers and was quite manoeuvrable at the 400-500 mph (640-800 km/h) range. Heavy usage of the rudder was required at slower speeds, forcing the pilots to be cautious to avoid stalls during shallow turns. However, this wasn't too dangerous as it was relatively easy to recover, via a positive elevator application. 

The Vampire could execute a wide range of aerobatic manoeuvres and as such its regarded as the last British jet fighter aircraft capable of performing hammer stalls, stall turns and wingovers. 

The set-up procedure for taking off was relatively simple as it only required six vital actions to be taken; set the trim to neutral, open the high and low-pressure fuel cocks, activate booster pump, set the flaps and retracting the air brakes. If the Vampire was loaded with bombs or rockets, the landing gear had to be quickly retracted upon leaving the ground or else the increased airflow could prevent the undercarriage doors from closing. 

Landing procedure was also relatively simple; disengage wheel brakes, lower the undercarriage, flaps full down and air brakes active. Given the slow response of the engine to throttle changes, power-on landings were very typical and wheel brakes were to be applied very carefully to prevent wheel locking as the fighters were not equipped with anti-locking system. Training variant, however, was equipped with one.

The experience of the Vampire in tropical areas led to the development of new models with refrigeration equipment for the pilot and a more powerful version of the Goblin engine, to counter the degradation of performance in hot climates. That's why the Royal Air Force (RAF) decided to adopt a new model of the Vampire powered by the Goblin 3 engine. Therefore, in January 1952 the first Vampire Mk.9 (AKA FB.9) was introduced to service with the Far East Air Force, replacing the FB.5s. The FB.9 also saw service in Middle East and Africa, with a brief deployment in 1954 against the Mau Mau rebels in Kenya. The FB.9 was gradually replaced by the de Havilland Venom. 
The Royal Navy employed the Vampire, albeit in limited numbers. The Sea Vampire had some key differences, as it was equipped with a V-shaped arrester hook that retracted to a high-mounted position above the jet pipe. It was fitted with larger air brakes and landing flaps for better low-speed control during carrier approaches. It was also equipped with stronger construction for the higher stresses involved in carrier landings and catapult launches. The Sea Vampire F.20 was a navalised variant of the FB.5.

Sources:

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

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

De Havilland Vampire. Part Thirteen. British users, part one.

 

The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second British jet to serve with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the first to do so with a single jet engine. 

Its inception can be traced back to 1941 when, in January, Sir Henry Tizard made an informal approach to the de Havilland company suggesting that they should design a fighter aircraft employing the, back then, revolutionary jet propulsion technology. De Havilland designed, unofficially, a single-engined aircraft with air intakes at the roots of the wings, to feed a central engine. For this commitment, Major Frank Halford (aero-engine designer working at de Havilland) was given access to Frank Whittle's pioneering engine and, from it, Halford adapted Whittle's engine to generate 3.000 lb of thrust, renaming it to Halford H.1 (and would eventually be known as de Havilland Goblin). By April 1941 the first H.1 was successfully tested.

De Havilland's first jet fighter design, named as DH.99, was considered as undetailed by the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP), however, given the high expectations raised by the company, they gave the project permission to proceed in July 1941. 

The DH.99 was soon modified to incorporate some design recommendations from the MAP and was, therefore, renumbered to DH.100 in November 1941. As the design was considered unorthodox, the authorization for a prototype didn't come until 22nd April 1942, when the MAP issued a specification E.6/41 to cover the work. 

Initially named as "Spider Crab" the DH.100 was entirely developed at Hatfield aerodrome, Hertfordshire, which was de Havilland's private proving grounds. 

The DH.100 was powered by a single jet engine housed in an egg-shaped fuselage which was mainly composed of plywood in the forward section and aluminium in the aft. It had conventional straight wings, which were equipped with air-brakes to slow down the aircraft (feature also present in the Gloster Meteor). It was armed with four 20 mm Hispano-Suiza cannons placed underneath the nose. 

It wasn't until 20th September 1943 when the prototype made its maiden flight at Hatfield. With Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. (company's chief test pilot and son of the company's founder) at the controls. This flight took place six months later than the maiden flight of the Gloster Meteor because the only available jet engine was sent to the United States to replace one that was destroyed on ground at Lockheed, when testing the XP-80 prototype jet fighter, which would eventually become the P-80 Shooting Star. 

Testing of the Vampire's prototype showed some directional instability, but this was solved in production versions by redesigning the tail section. 

The Vampire entered official service with the RAF in 1946, after the war, in the interceptor role. Many were sent to equip the squadrons of the Second Tactical Air Force, stationed in Northern Germany, mainly replacing the Hawker Typhoon, Hawker Tempest and North American Mustang.

The Royal Navy also showed interest on the Vampire after some carrier take-off and landing trials were made on board HMS Ocean (R68) using a modified Vampire in December 1945. In 1947 the Royal Navy placed an order for a navalised version of the Vampire FB.5, which was quickly given the name of Sea Vampire.

Sources:

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

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