IAC Vampires

[Irish251]

 Short Finals : That's just a rumour ! 

Tony : is that a "Blue Max" biplane in the background ?

Joe
[/quote]

Looks like two biplanes with RAF-type roundels - ?

[Joe McDermott]

Possibly Slingsby / Currie Wot SE.5 replicas. 

Joe

[Tony Kearns]

Possibly Slingsby / Currie Wot SE.5 replicas. 

Joe

Hi Joe and SH yes they were stored there for a while in between filiming Blue Max and later Darling Lily. Will check and see if i have any pics, but that section was blocked off at the time
Tony K

[202]

Interesting article in January 'Flier' magazine re flight in Vampire T11 in civilian ownership in UK. Apparently heavy on juice and on tyres -- tricky too on start up as risk of fire in engine and spin recovery difficult -- amazing the Air Corps operated them for some twenty years without serious incident ...

[Irish251]

Interesting article in January 'Flier' magazine re flight in Vampire T11 in civilian ownership in UK. Apparently heavy on juice and on tyres -- tricky too on start up as risk of fire in engine and spin recovery difficult -- amazing the Air Corps operated them for some twenty years without serious incident ...

Though there was the incident where a trainee pilot ejected from a spinning Vampire, the instructor then recovering control and bringing the aircraft, minus canopy(?), back to Baldonnel.

[Joe McDermott]

I believe Short Finals is correct about the Martin Baker being used once, during a spin recovery, successfully too !  & I think all the first generation jets engines were very heavy on the fuel. Non the less, the Vampire had an excellent safety record with the IAC & elsewhere.

Joe

[Tony Kearns]

Interesting article in January 'Flier' magazine re flight in Vampire T11 in civilian ownership in UK. Apparently heavy on juice and on tyres -- tricky too on start up as risk of fire in engine and spin recovery difficult -- amazing the Air Corps operated them for some twenty years without serious incident ...

Indeed the Goblin engine was a gas guzzler, I believe that there was a fire risk on starting but I never saw any difficult starting at Baldonnel and I did observe a good few start ups. Lt MacPartlin was the only Air Corps person to use a parachute in an emergency, the Vampire was flown back to Baldonnel minus canopy by Comdt. Jerry O Connor (Brig. Gen JB O Connor retd.) The Vampire in Air Corps service  had a a good safety record, apart from two undercarriage failures and on another occasion when formating wtih another Vampire had a complete electrical failure. The pilot took his aircraft in safely.

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi there
All straight-through turbojets were fuel-guzzlers.They were straight-through in the sense that all of the air drawn in went through the combustion cans to be mixed with fuel and ignited.Even the Fougas' small Marbore VI Fs were heavy drinkers.The ground crew, during Goblin engine runs, had to drape a fireproof blanket over the elevators and hold it there by hand during start-up(and this was before the age of ear defenders). A "wet" start (one in which fuel has been introduced too early in the start sequence) would produce a tail of flame out of the exhaust until the engine had revved up enough to stabilize and cease emitting flames.Wet starts, apart from the obvious risk of damaging the tail, were not wanted as they could damage the power turbine at the back of the engine.
regards
GttC

[Tempest]

Bit of a pedantic question, but does anyone recollect when the vampires started to go out of service?  I read that by the time the fougas arrived only 3 vampires were flying, wondering how long that situation was going on for?  Were there problems completing wings courses with just 3 serviceable aircraft (if that was indeed the case)?