Inside The Cockpit - de Havilland Vampire

when it comes to world war ii and jets the list of aircraft we tend to think about is relatively short limited most likely to the German me-262 the Heinkel 162 Dorado and perhaps the British Gloster Meteor but there are many Jets that came into being during that cataclysmic conflict and would in the ashes of the fighting help Harold in a new era of fighter jets that the Havilland vampire [Music] hello everyone and welcome back to military aviation history I am your host Bismarck and this episode is at free sponsored by my patrons if you like what you see today please consider supporting our channel by a patreon or PayPal as this does help me travel to museums sort out the logistics and get this sort of content into your living room today we are at clinda in bayern switzerland having a look at the de Havilland vampire a British jet fighter that you can track its own lineage back into the Second World War as one of the earliest Jets it stands out as an early pioneering a feat of a new age it's recognizable design makes it a favorite of many so Before we jump inside let's explore the history of this compact but vicious flying machine during the Second World War experimentation with the engines had advanced enough to develop the first jet-powered aircraft such as the German me-262 or the British Gloster Meteor however well these saw some service during the war our example certainly didn't but much of its development was conducted during the early 1940s based on specification East 641 a prototype of what would become the vampire first flew in September 1943 when it first flew it did indeed look somewhat outlandish the engine was set directly behind the cockpit and the tail plane was set high connected to the fuselage and the wings by two booms the aircraft itself was low on the ground with little clearance between the tarmac and the fuselage with de Havilland essentially trying to take advantage of the lack of an air screw the design itself largely resulted out of the considerations given to the requirements of the jet engine the twin boom was not a popular option but seemed to fit the project simplified matters and there were some advantageous externalities considering the air and techniques of aircraft which would be housed in the wings rather than going along the fuselage however there were concerns about weight as well as vertical and your control of the aircraft which had to be considered surprisingly from a modern perspective perhaps the aircraft featured a composite construction of metal and wood following the Havilland's trend out of the late 1930s in which the company used a lot of wood the vampyre used this around the cockpit between bulkhead 1 and 4 the carpet itself was set nicely forward giving a good view on ground and this did of course help the pilot the placement of the engine itself allowed for heavy forward firepower as it was out of the way and vampire rolled out of for 20 millimeter canons considering the shifting priorities of the RAF it could have been possible to introduce the vampire earlier but it is what it is test pilots issued some concerns about directional stability but responded well to the overall modifications made and considered her well a nice aircraft to flying except in sharp maneuvers she was responsive perhaps overly so but with little vibrations or noise annoying the operator as had been the case with piston engines the negatives were poor acceleration which was quite a common complaint in the early jets there was also a concerns about limited endurance and overly sensitive rudder and procorp climb and provision to the side and rear partly due to a very thick canopy the mark ones were first flown in April 1945 does coming too late to see an introduction into the frontline squadrons but the design showed a lot of promise blowing part of the original specification issued by the Air Ministry out of the sky it was the first RAF jet to clear the mythical top speed beyond 500 miles an hour it cleared 15 9,000 feet in altitude and was the first jet to conduct carrier trials back in December 45 this also showed the flexibility of the being used both on land and on the sea as well being British sea vampires a bit of trivia in fact the Royal Navy used the aircraft that when they experimented with rubber decks on their carriers put forth for squadron evaluation the aircraft's or subsequent upgrades from engine changes to pressurized cockpits they were quickly stationed in Germany by the second Tactical Air Force and became the first jet to be given to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force thus the vampires made sure that the Royal Air Force had a solid set of jet fighters to prepare the entry into the jet age but it also provided the first stepping stones for other nations such as Austria Finland Switzerland before that however the vampire went through certain changes you can see some of these in the tail plane there we have the horizontal stabilizer which was lowered after fear of compressibility did not materialize we also see an introduction of little acorns to the side to offset the instability caused by drop tanks and shift to a more rounded vertical stabilizer and rudder experiments with different engines also continued for example the Rolls Royce in a combat trials also highlighted an inability of intercepting high-flying enemy jet bombers due to the lack of performance at those altitudes but the nampara did show a general superiority in low altitude combat the vampyre itself did not see an introduction of the ejection seats except for the exception no more that later but the later version the venom certainly did as such the vampire jumped through the model marks quite quickly you'll also see that throughout this time the RAF actually changed its nomenclature while for example the mark one of the vampires still used Roman numerals by the time the mark 3 comes along well we've settled to our Arabic numbers right there therefore throughout this time you will see certain nomenclature changes and a certain inconsistency in the labeling of development yeah craft the vampire was being pushed forward by the Aria through various spectacular displays starting in 1946 this culminated in the 1948 transit to Canada by a pit stop in Iceland and the agreement while an American f80 delegation was returning the favor in any case the vampire had proven to be a very flexible competitive platform able to weather both winter temperate and tropical climates with service in Canada Europe and Southeast Asia yet already before this the Gloster Meteor had essentially become the standard british interceptor and de Havilland had to ensure a future for the vampire they went back to the old British party trick and clipped her wings strengthening yet reducing the wing stan by about a foot the fighter bomber mark five improved the vampire and made it more versatile as a capable ground attack fighter bomber when fitted with bombs or dam fire rockets this version actually saw combat against Malayan insurgents and replaced the earlier vampires both in the UK and in Germany the vampire started to come into its own and interest by foreign governments doubled Commonwealth nations of course such as Australia had already conducted trials with the aircraft and some countries had also fielded the de Havilland Lane but suddenly interest came from a very unexpected corner the first one was France followed by Italy both showed an interest to field the vampire as front-line fighters and to further their own designs their own jet developments by looking at the vampire French vampires also served as a Jacqueline oils weapon of choice when she broke the woman's speed record in 51 and 52 going 508 and 504 one miles per hour respectively she was actually a remarkable pilot having only learned to fly jets a year before half she spent a year or two in a hospital following a severe plane crash during that time she apparently got bored and decided of all things to studies trigonometry and aerodynamics well there is a bit of motivational trivia for you in any case a string of experts followed Egypt Finland Iraq Lebanon Norway Sweden even minutes oli and more now I don't want to go into all the later marks of the vampire just yet as we have a mark 6 right next to us it is certainly something we can do in the future however for now let's turn to the aircraft we have right here in PI am the vampire was the first jet the swiss ever put into service after first coming into contact with it during a visit to the UK in 1945 Switzerland bought for mark once in 1946 and the introduction of the 3300 pounds thrust goblin three engines saw the development of the vampire FB mark 61 this version is essentially unique to Switzerland although it was used as the basis for the mark 52 which was also an export variant initially 85 were produced with a second licensed production run of 100 aircraft following that the aircraft next to me here is part of that swish production the swiss developed quite a relationship with the vampire only phasing it out completely in 1990 however first use as fighters they would then also shifted to a more dedicated ground attack role before relegation to trainer roles although the relationship with vampire was generally a positive one initially it was not without its controversy as over a piston engine aircraft were initially favoured by the Swiss Air Force because Switzerland had only a small Air Force at the time and no real expertise with Jets training was difficult and does two-seat trainer aircraft were introduced as well these were then also used for testing of new modifications modifications obviously being something to switch really like and also phased in to reconnaissance roles the situation steadily improve and the vampire can be remembered as the aircraft that sets the foundation for the Swiss when it comes to the jet age the vampire has a length of nine point four meters a span of 11.6 meters and stands at 2.7 meters it is powered by a single Goblin free engine giving a maximum thrust of 3,300 pounds if this can achieve a top speed of about eight hundred 20 kilometers an hour and it has a range of 600 kilometers empty the aircraft weighs around 3,000 kilograms and it has a maximum takeoff weight of 5,800 kilograms the plane itself is equipped with 420 millimeter hiss panel mark five cannons holding 150 rounds each plenty of devastation there and additional pylons for bombs and rockets can be used depending on combat mission the maximum payload there is round about 500 kilo Rams so to get into a vampire this is a relatively easy task you have a foot rest here which is actually spring-loaded inside of the fuselage to get it out you push the top and you pull it out with a bit of schmucker's as we say in Germany and then you'll have your left foot on the foot rest you put your right foot on the wing here of course taking care not actually to place it on the air intake here but I should get close to the central fuselage and then you just step right in so let's go now the catcher releases as you place your foot on top of it and as you can see it goes into the fuselage itself nobody has to worry about it anymore and then you just squeeze and when I say squeeze I mean squeeze there we go excellent alright so explaining some of the bits and bobs here in this aircraft in the general cockpit layout it's a bit cramped starting all the way on the bottom left we have a little Y wheel that allows us to the eyes the canopy it's set in a position that is extremely uncomfortable to access but you wouldn't use it that often so that's not a big deal above that we have the master switch and the right of that we have the emergency release for the year all the way below that actually well out of rage no accidents can happen here is the landing gear lever and next to that is the the flap control going a little bit further here we have of course the throttle control of the aircraft you press that forward to an obviously open up the throttle and you have a little of white flywheel here working actually tenzin up the throttle controls you can fix it in place which is quite nice to the left of the throttle you have the fuel lever below it you have your air brakes release lever and the wheel below the friction control is for the elevator trim moving forward a little bit more here in the aircraft will see some off the dials that have to do with the operation of the engine so we have the temperature gauges and we have the RPMs of the engine the Goblin free above that we have a G meter and slightly offset to the left barely visible for me at this position is a clock below that all of that we have of course indicator whether the gear is stored or down and locked again barely visible from here but there is a also a visual indication with a light indication so it's gonna make things a little bit easier of course I can also switch on a couple of lamps and inside a cockpit that's what every cockpit and we also have the flap flap indicator whether they are up or down switching over to the right we start first with the gunsight which can also then be adjusted on the right with a bit of an adjustment wheel here but above that we will also find a comm pass to the left got a switch for the VHF and we've got your elevator trim the left of that below that we start with the dials that I can barely see we have the speed in kilometers an hour and below that the altitude and my knee is essentially obstructing it as there's very little chance of me actually being able to read it then into the middle of that we have the compass and below that we have the iff to the right we have the artificial horizon and the burial medium behind the control stick we find the reservoir for the fuel tanks on the left on the right-hand side if the stick wasn't locked in place I would it'll be impossible to iterate us to the right then we also have to turn em slip and we have a and I have to twist my knee here to inertia to be able to see it we have your oxygen meter and all the way on the right we have your compressed air reservoir then switching over here we've got a licensed origin from maps and all that good stuff and of course some of the electrical systems and also the starter systems for the aircraft setup of the electrical and starter system you have a lever that allows you to manually open and close the canopy so in the vampire if you were a swiss pilot you had one advantage over all other vampire pilots in the world and that is that you had an ejector seat provided you can actually move in this cockpit you would be able to pull these tabs right here and you go straight out you'd earn a tie and you're safe whereas a vampire pilots well they're not unlock I'm not quite sure what to say about this aircrafts cockpit it is of course one of the first generation Jets there are certain things you have to take for granted there it's not going to give you the same sort of comfort as modern jets or even later yet second generation four generation and so on but I can see myself especially a tall person at a time being somewhat a miss in this cockpit it does have its positive features this seat does Polster out a little bit and it is relatively comfortable the elbow freedom here is quite nice I do have easy access with the throttle I can I think use all switches with relative ease but just operating this aircraft of course there's also to be said above pilots flying by feel so they understand the Machine by intuition by just skill and repetition but you always want to be in a position where you can actually read everything in the vampyre it does seem to be a little bit difficult overall being an early fighter jet to vampire does have its flaws but overall which design health fast it was a reliable machine solid stepping-stone and lives on to this day with various machines remaining in flying condition at the end of the day that's what it's all about thank you very much for watching and I want to thank the music clan die here Empire and Switzerland for allowing us to film their exhibit if you're interested in seeing this particular aircraft to visit the museum I highly recommend it and all information of course is in the description below and if you enjoyed this video please consider supporting us by our patreon or PayPal as this does help us produce this sort of content and allows us to place it right into your living room as always please remember to share this video and have a great day good hunting and see you in the sky I'll have to find a way of actually getting out now you

Channel: Military Aviation History

Views: 171,905

Keywords: De Havilland, Vampire, jet, fighter, inside the cockpit, military aviation history, mah, Cold War, Switzerland, Swiss, Air Force, Cockpit

Id: V9EP6aRHvL0

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 02 2020