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The de Havilland Vampire

The Vampire was the RAF's first jet fighter, being flown as early as 1943 and entering service in 1946. This widely used aircraft was still in service in New Zealand up until 1972, in Switzerland up until 1990, and was still actually being built up to 1953. Various modifications were made using different engines and to create training versions, a navy version, and a night fighter version. In total over 2900 were produced in various countries and over 80 are still airworthy today (quite a high percentage for an aircraft of this age).

Her's the specs for the Vampire (the FB.Mk 6 version). Engine: One 3,350-pound thrust D.H. Goblin 3 turbojet. Empty weight: 7,283 lbs, maximum takeoff weight: 12,390 lbs. Wing Span: 38ft 0in, length: 30ft 9in, height: 8ft 10in. Maximum speed: 548 mph, ceiling: 42,800 ft, range: 1,220 miles. Armament: four 20-mm cannons in the nose, underwing stores included eight 60-pound rockets, or two 1,000-pound bombs, or two drop tanks.

Use the controller below to watch to the Vampire scream overhead (this requires Quicktime, and is a moderately large movie). I apologise for the poor quality of this movie but it was originally encoded in the "early days" of internet video!


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