The Aeroplane Collection Ltd

www.theaeroplanecollection.org

MILITARY JET TRAINER

de Havilland Vampire T11 XD624

The de Havilland DH100 Vampire was designed in 1942 to Air Ministry Specification E.6/41 for a single-seat jet fighter. Originally the aircraft was known as the Spider Crab, but the Royal Air Force (RAF) gave it the name Vampire.

The Vampire was powered by a single centrifugal jet engine, which was manufactured by de Havilland's also. To make greatest use of the thrust from this single engine the tailpipe was kept as short as possible, leading to the Vampire's short fuselage and twin tail boom configuration. To keep weight to a minimum the short fuselage or nacelle was made from moulded plywood, similar to the fuselage of the famous Mosquito.

The Vampire first flew on 20 September 1943, piloted by Chief Test Pilot Geoffrey de Havilland. However it was to be April 1945 before the first production Vampire flew, and this was too late for service during the Second World War. Most of the production of the first mark of Vampire was undertaken by English Electric, under contract from de Havilland, in the Preston area.

The Vampire T11 was developed first as a company-financed venture, and then for the RAF. It featured a modified nacelle, which allowed pilot and instructor to sit side by side. The prototype first flew in November 1950, followed by the first production aircraft on 1 December 1951. Introduced in to RAF service from 1953, the T11 provided jet aircraft experience to trainee pilots for the first time. Over 3,000 RAF pilots were trained on Vampire T11s, before it was phased out of service in favour of the Folland Gnat T1 in 1967.

731 Vampire T11s were built, mostly by de Havillands at Hatfield in Hertfordshire or at Chester.

This Vampire T11 was the last of a small batch of 30 such aircraft assembled by Fairey Aviation at Manchester Airport in 1955. It was allocated de Havilland construction number 15449, as the 449th T11 built. The first flight was on 11 September 1955, when Fairey Aviation Chief Test Pilot David Masters took off at 2:15 p.m. and landed 35 minutes later.

The aircraft then went in to storage, before being delivered to 19 Squadron at Church Fenton, in Yorkshire, on 11 October 1956. The aircraft was used as the Squadron hack, with the main equipment being Hawker Hunters. Leaving Church Fenton in January 1959, XD624 went in to storage, made a brief appearance in the static park of the 1959 Farnborough Airshow, and was then allocated to the RAF Central Navigation and Control School at Shawbury in 1960. In 1967 the aircraft ceased to be used at Shawbury, and was disposed of by the Ministry of Defence on 15 December 1970. It is believed to have been moved to Woodford for disposal, from whence Macclesfield College collected it for use as an instructional airframe. This meant that the aircraft was moved inside, and well maintained as a systems trainer.

In 2004 XD624 was replaced by a more modern BAe Jetstream and became surplus to the College's requirements. It was offered, and subsequently donated, to Manchester International Airport's Aviation Viewing Park. Initially it returned to Hangar 3, to join the Museum of Science & Industry's Avro RJX. By coincidence this was the very building in which XD624 had been assembled originally ! A little later the Vampire was moved outside to the Aviation Viewing Park, where it remained on display until November 2006 when it was moved to MOSI's temporary store at Swinton. When this was vacated in 2009, the aircraft moved to the RAF Millom and Militaria Museum, in Haverigg, Cumbria. This closed in 2010, and XD624 was acquired by The Aeroplane Collection and moved to Hooton Park.

Technical Data