VAMPIRE NIGHT FIGHTERS: The Interim Interim

The RAF had a serious problem in 1950. The USSR was building up high altitude jet bomber forces. The RAF's Mosquito couldn't catch them.
The Gloster Javelin was years away. The interim Meteor night fighter was delayed. NATO was fretting that the UK's vulnerability to air attack was a critical chink in the alliance's armour.
So the RAF needed an interim for their interim. Fortunately a solution was right in front of them. De Havilland had built a dozen radar-equipped, two seat Vampires as a cheap all-weather interceptor for Egypt. Worsening relations led to the order being blocked.
The RAF snapped them up. This video is the story of that aircraft, a curious mix of off-the-shelf bits and pieces and ingenuity, which became the UK's first jet powered night fighter. Niche, but hopefully enjoyable.
Sources and notes:
First West Malling crash record: aviation-safety.net/wikibase/...
Context on the crew: sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index...
Second West Malling crash record: aviation-safety.net/wikibase/...
Context on the crew: sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index...
Losses and fate of all NF.10 aircraft: www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH11...
UK aircraft losses in 1957, confirming navigation trainer version lost: www.ukserials.com/losses-1957.htm

[@hammersandnails1458]

The Vampire has always been one of my favorite early jets. If looks could kill!

[@thegreyhound1073]

If looks could kill its mother would have thrown it in a dumpster.

[@diggledoggle4192]

The Gloster Javelin would be a perfect video for this channel

[@notapound]

I agree ;)

[@kitbag9033]

Another well balanced, tidy production. Well done

[@babboon5764]

Aye - Good this bloke innee?

[@mattblom3990]

I think the content creator's voice is vintage 1990s VHS airplane narrator and I that's the best compliment I can give the guy.

[@SkyhawkSteve]

I wasn't aware of the Vampire until I saw one at the Planes of Fame museum in California. It was small, but it did look sleek for an early jet. Practically, relying on single jet engine in those days was risky and resulted in little thrust. Still.. I thought it looked pretty neat!

[@20chocsaday]

When I saw one I thought it must be a model plane. That was a single seat version.

[@jwenting]

The Vampire was a very nice little jet. Nimble, reasonable performance, but lacking in endurance and firepower because of its small size. It may have had less power than the Meteor, but being so much lighter that didn't really matter.

[@johngriffiths118]

Two engines had their own dangers . Look at the Meteor loss rates . At low airspeed a loss of one was very likely to fatal

[@SkyhawkSteve]

@@johngriffiths118 good point! The best compromise might be something like the McDonnell FH-1, the first Phantom. Engines in the wing roots reduce the asymmetric thrust considerably in the event of engine failure. ... and this arrangement was found on many other aircraft.

[@basilb4733]

I really love this series about the early 1950s interceptors / fighters (F-94, F-86D, NF Meteor, NF Vampire, F-89, etc). Congrat for this high quality content. And now a follow-on with the Venom NF 😀

[@mattblom3990]

There is a Vampire at the Canadian Museum of Flight near me. The museum lets you walk up to, touch (including a nasty thumb cut I got from a Starfighter's razor wing), the aircraft without boundaries of fencing or gates. The Vampire is *tiny* like "kit car" tiny. I'm amazed it was a functional warplane, though it is beautiful. Our one of a kind Handley-Page Hampden is tiny as well for a "bomber".

[@notapound]

Thanks for the comment. Hope your thumb is okay! On the Vampire, I really need to get into it more. It is somewhat easy to dismiss because of its modest performance, but the way such a new technology was packaged into a useful and reliable jet fighter is quite remarkable. One for 2024, I think.

[@mattblom3990]

@@notapound The thumb is well-healed thank you, I was just a little surprised at the somewhat lackluster state of the local museum that had "wing protectors" for the F-104 Starfighter that had worn to the point that you could even touch the wing and get the cut that I did. It makes me think that I wouldn't mind your analysis at some point in the future on the F-104 "widowmaker". In some ways it had high performance characteristics, but in others it's so controversial because of how difficult it was to fly.

[@Boric78]

Nice. Grew up just outside Carlisle in the 70s and we used to have Vampire's flying around with Indian and other aircrews in them learning. Those boys used to properly beat up the Eden valley at low level. As a six year old we used to wave from our Chopper bikes and I swear sometimes they waved back. Top bunch of lads the Indian airforce.........

[@starliner2498]

Vampire had an illustrious career with the IAF, wonderful machine the Vamp!

[@jona.scholt4362]

New Zealand's Kiwi Roundel has to be the best of any Air Force; although the RAAF's Kangaroo Roundel gives it a run for it's money.

[@thomasbell7033]

Wasn't there also a pretty cool SAAF roundel?

[@aaronquak2139]

A flightless bird for the air force, who would have thunk

[@jona.scholt4362]

@@aaronquak2139 Haha, now I'm asking myself how I didn't think of that! Your comment got a big chuckle from me; I still think it's pretty awesome though.

[@RCAvhstape]

@@aaronquak2139Does a kangaroo fly any higher?

[@ianallan8005]

@@thomasbell7033are you thinking of Rhodesia? An RAF roundel with three spears

[@Hartley_Hare]

There's something slightly heroic and very British about that picture at 7:08 - some scruffy, odd men in horn-rimmed glasses, foul overalls and regrettable trousers (I'm looking at you on the far right) have built something really rather good out of the most unlikely materials that will keep Britain going for a bit longer. Also interesting to note is the Lincoln (Lancaster ?) in the background, showing that the torch was passing from one generation to another.

[@andywells397]

Saw 2 flying at a air show, nice things and nimble.

[@jona.scholt4362]

How many bales of cotton did Brazil have to trade for a fighter? This must be the best example of using a seemingly antiquated form of exchange, bartering, for something technologically advanced, a jet fighter. Little tidbits like this are what makes this channel a gem.

[@modelaviation3848]

Dude love you vids I could watch you videos for hours I would love to see Something on the F-111

[@kassthered8452]

I've always considered the Vampire to be the most beautiful of the early jet planes, just something about her that works for me.

[@notapound]

There's an elegance in its simplicity even if most of the ideas in it proved to be dead ends in the long term.

[@sadwingsraging3044]

10:00 The mighty Kiwi!🥰

[@andhelm7097]

Great presentation

[@leftnoname]

It was available, it was good enough and not prohibitively expensive. All was a sensible decision by the RAF to employ a limited number of units to provide essential capability without risking long time development.

[@RCAvhstape]

While it's true we don't measure success of aircraft the same as e used to, it's interesting to note the handful of 1950s aircraft types that are still in service today. Most of them are large transport or bomber type aircraft which don't put lots of G loads on their airframes and thus don't suffer as much from fatigue, B-52 Stratofortress being the obvious example. Others are so successful in their role that they are not only still in service, but even still in production after over 6 decades, such as the C-130 Hercules.

[@brianrmc1963]

It is definitely a cool looking aircraft.

[@babboon5764]

*For a long time the original Vampire was popular in all regards but one* . As the narration confirms here, it lacked an ejection seat (which was a bit 💩 given Martin Baker had them working as early as 1945) Pilots had a well founded concern that on bailing out .... the tail boom had a very sporting chance of snapping their spine like a twig. Someone somewhere may have stats as to how real that risk was. For sure the author Frederick (Day of the Jackal) Forsyth mentions it more then once - And he flew the things in the RAF

[@jona.scholt4362]

Another great video. If you pardon the pun, I see this channel "taking off".

[@chriskortan1530]

More please!

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Bailing out of a Vampire without an ejection seat seems iffy at best.

[@SweetVids2010]

Hey love your vidoes, always well put together and narrated. Any chance for a video on the f-111 ?

[@notapound]

Thanks for the praise! Now, I love the F-111... but it just likes to bomb things too much :)... but now you mention it, there was supposed to be a Navy interceptor, so I might just start to gather some materials...

[@basilb4733]

I really love this series about the early 1950s interceptors / fighters (F-94, F-86D, NF Meteor, NF Vampire, F-89, etc). Congrat for this high quality content!

[@jwenting]

@@notapound F-111B was a brilliant idea that was killed by politics and intra service rivalry more than anything.

[@raymondyee2008]

Holy Cow I didn’t know about this.

[@trespasserswill7052]

And we're still waiting for that Travolta movie.

[@soggycracker5934]

If you do videos on BAD American aircraft, your voice is perfect for that cold British derision.

[@warhawk4494]

Hell yeah. Great video man. Also a video on the Gnat would be great. It was a combat successful midget jet fighter lol. (There was a point when america,Britian and I can't remember who else thought small fighters were going to be all the rage. Like the F-11 Tiger built by Gurmman.

[@swenhtet2861]

Mostly used by India during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistani Wars.

[@notapound]

F-11 Tiger is on my list... but I decided to make my life hard by starting with the FH Phantom and working through all of the Navy jet fighters!

[@RCAvhstape]

@@notapound It's amazing how different the Navy's airpower is from the Air Force, in both doctrine and hardware. The F-4 Phantom was a rare case where both services (3 counting the USMC) used the same basic model, only because they were forced by SecDef McNamara, and even then the services armed and operated the aircraft differently.

[@thegreyhound1073]

I have educated on the length of production of the mosquito night fighters. I wrongly assumed the NF versions of the Hornet had completely been replaced in production before 1950.

[@alexbaumans6493]

You mention intercepting beagles. Were they thinking of using this against Snoopy?

[@jeffreymcdonald8267]

At 6:30, truly a unique photo. High quality B&W. Snowy runway and what plane is that in upper left ???

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

It looks like a DH.114 Heron to me. The Heron was a stretched DH.104 Dove and to help move the heavier aircraft it was given 4 engines.

[@paulwoodman5131]

Sure can see the Canberra in the Meteor. Good point though about we don't measure successful jet aircraft the same anymore. With advances of the time, most aircraft were obsolete when they were introduced but still had to be introduced by somebody. Got to pull a trigger somewhere..... if the US south could have traded cotton for jets😮😮😅

[@typhoon2827]

How British would you like your new aircraft to look? Yes.

[@FixedGearFox]

Holy crap, did Pierre fucking *Sprey* invent the De Havilland? shit, I shouldnt say that out loud, he'll prolly try to take credit from beyond the grave....

[@nurfitri7538]

😅

[@ronjon7942]

Sigh, it always makes me sad how Britain lost its premier place in the golden age of 1st and 2nd (and 3rd) gen jet aviation. A lot of brilliance wasted because of a shortsighted paper and a more shortsighted Labour government. And an economy having a rough time. And… Sydney Camm stated: "All modern aircraft have four dimensions: span, length, height and politics. TSR-2 simply got the first three right.”

[@typhoon2827]

Drinker's nose.