DH.100 Vampire Exports

[Art Smass]

Hi all

Can any of our De-Havilland experts answer the following:

I have read in various publications that Vampires built for India (serials in the HB732 onwards range), Egypt (1506 on) and some Swedish airframes were built at Hatfield. I have seen records of some of these airframes purportedly being at Hawarden prior to delivery - is it possible/probable/likely that frames built at Hatfield were delivered via Hawarden?

thanks

JD

[brakedwell]

Maybe they were built in both places. A brand new Vampire Tll gave me a real fright in 1957. The top surface of paint/filler on the port wing came off in a high G turn and the aircraft flicked violently. Subsequently it was found that one wing had been built at Hawarden and the other at Hatfield. The port wing, being slightly thinner, had been built up with a thick layer of filler, which came off due to flexing on the third flight in service.

[binbrook]

Some wing L/Es were rolled in one piece and some had a butt-joint along it. If you had one of each (and there was at least one Mk5 which had a Mk9 wing on one side) both stalls and HSRs could be interesting.

[Allan Lupton]

So far as I know Vampires were made at Hatfield and Hawarden (or Chester as we knew it!) but I cannot say which batches were made where or even whether batches were split between the two factories.
I remember tales told by a former Tech Rep. of getting Swiss A.F. Vampires to stall straight by adding layers of paint to the LE of one wing, but filler sounds a bit too much of an adjustment.

[spekesoftly]

David Watkins' book, 'The History of the De Havilland Vampire', mentions that an initial batch of 39 Vampire FB 52s for India were to be produced at Hatfield. However, further down the page it says that deliveries of the Chester-built Vampire FB52s, HB732 to HB770, were made between September 1950 and June 1951.

[brakedwell]

Once straight and level it came as a shock to see a large part of the port wing had turned from silver to green :eek:

[Art Smass]

it came as a shock to see a large part of the port wing had turned from silver to green

That would have been the Hatfield wing ;)

Chester produced to a much higher quality :p

I think I'll have to acquire a copy of Watkins's book - it may answer some of my queries

thanks

[spekesoftly]

I've since found another entry in the Watkins book confirming that production batches were sometimes split between factories. An order from Norway for 36 Vampire FB 52s was divided between Hatfield (11 aircraft) and Chester (25 aircraft) with deliveries between December 1949 and April 1951.