page_title: De Havilland Vampire
section_title: Australia
hierarchical_section_title: De Havilland Vampire / Operational history / Australia
caption_attribution_description: English: The de Havilland Vampire F1 A78-1 after being crash landed at Pt. Cook RAAF base on 13 June 1947, by ARDU Flt/Lt J. A. Lee Archer. de Havilland Vampire
context_page_description: The de Havilland Vampire is a British jet fighter which was developed and manufactured by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was the second jet fighter to be operated by the RAF, after the Gloster Meteor, and the first to be powered by a single jet engine.
  Development of the Vampire as an experimental aircraft began in 1941 during the Second World War, to exploit the groundbreaking innovation of jet propulsion. From the company's design studies, it was decided to use a single-engine, twin-boom aircraft, powered by the Halford H.1 turbojet. Aside from its propulsion system and twin-boom configuration, it was a relatively conventional aircraft. In May 1944 it was decided to mass-produce the aircraft as an interceptor for the Royal Air Force. In 1946 the Vampire entered operational service with the RAF, only months after the war had ended.
  The Vampire quickly proved to be effective and was adopted as a replacement of wartime piston-engined fighter aircraft. During its early service it accomplished several aviation firsts and achieved various records, such as being the first jet aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
context_section_description: During 1946, government approval was given for the purchase of an initial 50 Vampire fighter aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The first three machines of this batch were British-built aircraft, an F1, F2 and FB.5, and were given serial numbers A78-1 to A78-3. The second aircraft, the F2 (A78-2), was significant in that it was powered by the more powerful Rolls-Royce Nene jet engine, rather than the standard Goblin unit.
  All of the 80 F.30 fighters and FB.31 fighter-bomber Vampires that were subsequently built by de Havilland Australia were powered by Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) versions of the Nene engine manufactured under licence at their facility in Melbourne. The Nene required a greater intake cross-section than the Goblin, and the initial solution was to mount auxiliary intakes on top of the fuselage behind the canopy. Unfortunately these intakes led to elevator blanking on formation of shock waves, and three aircraft and pilots were lost in unrecoverable dives. All of the Nene-engined aircraft were later modified to move the auxiliary intakes beneath the fuselage, thus entirely avoiding the problem.
  In June 1949, the first Vampire F.30 fighter (A79-1) made its first flight; it was followed by 56 more F.30 variants before the final 23 aircraft were completed as FB.31s, being fitted with strengthened and clipped wings along with underwing hardpoints. A single F.30 was also converted to the F.32 standard, which was mostly identical to the Vampire FB.9 save for the addition of climate control conditioning. In 1954, all single seat Vampires were retired by the RAAF, but remained in service in Citizen Air Force squadrons until the early 1960s.
  The Vampire T.33 was a two-seat training version, powered by the Goblin turbojet and built in Australia. T.34 and T.35 were used by the RAAF and the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). (In RAAF service they were known as Mk33 through to Mk35W.) Many were manufactured or assembled at de Havilland Australia's facilities in Sydney. The Mk35W was a Mk35 fitted with spare Mk33 wings following overstress or achievement of fatigue life. Vampire trainer production in Australia amounted to 110 aircraft, and the initial order was filled by 35 T.33s for the RAAF; deliveries being made in 1952 with five T.34s for the RAN delivered in 1954. The trainers remained in service in the RAAF until 1970, and in the RAN until 1971, when they were replaced by the Macchi MB-326.
caption: The Vampire F1 A78-1 after crash landing at RAAF Base Point Cook in 1947
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