- Yes, as a tech tree vehicle
- Yes, as a premium vehicle
- Yes, as an event vehicle
- Yes, as a squadron vehicle
- No, I would not like to see the Vampire F.30 in game.
“Cleo” of the RAAF on the tarmac. This photo is from later in its service life as evidenced by the nose fairing for the radio compass and the auxiliary air intakes being underneath the fuselage.
TL;DR
- Australia’s first jet aircraft
- Dedicated fighter variant of the Vampire with no ground attack equipment
- Longer elliptical wing than the fighter-bomber vampires
- Powered by the Rolls-Royce Nene, giving significant thrust and speed increase over the normal Vampire
Why it should be in the game: The F.30 is historic for being the first jet aircraft to be assembled in Australia, but besides that it has a lot of features that the domestic British Nene-powered Vampire, the F.2, doesn’t bring to the table. As compared to the F.2 the F.30 incorporates armor protection, additional fuel tanks, larger wing drop tanks and superior yaw stability. Meanwhile compared to the FB.5 its performance is significantly better, giving it the ability to hold its ground in prolonged fights. It doesn’t have enough performance to be just another Venom so it has a unique niche too. All in all the F.30 is a fascinating blend of many different Vampire versions and would be fun to see in game.
History
This specific Vampire F.30 is the first jet aircraft to be produced in Australia. Compared to the first picture in the post it can be seen that the auxiliary intakes for the Nene’s airflow requirements are positioned above the air intakes. This was a fatal flaw that was unfortunately recognized too late.
Even before the Vampire had proliferated through RAF inventory, it was clear to the pilots and designers of the Vampire F Mk.I that it was lacking in performance. It had barely entered service when de Havilland proposed installing the powerful new Rolls-Royce Nene in place of de Havilland’s own Goblin engine. As early as June 1945 a Vampire had been modified to take the Nene and designated the F Mk.II. The results, surprisingly, were awful. It turned out that the Nene had a double-sided impellor which the Vampire’s intakes simply couldn’t deliver air to properly. While engineers tried to solve the airflow issue a band-aid fix was found in the form of “elephant ear” auxiliary intakes on the top of the fuselage behind the cockpit. The increased drag was made up for by the raw power the Nene supplied. The RAF were not particularly interested in the F Mk.II due to its development issues, but fortunately for it, one example was sent to Australia for evaluation.
The RAAF received three Vampires, given the serial A78. A78-1 was a Vampire F.1, A78-2 was the F.2 and A78-3, naturally, was a Vampire FB.5. The Vampire FB.5 was better equipped for ground attack capability, but what the RAAF wanted was an interceptor, and the F.2 delivered. However it would receive many modifications before entering service. The intakes were revised, the tailplane was changed to the new lower-set version that debuted on the Vampire F.3, and armor protection was added to the cockpit. The serial A79 was given to production Vampires, the first of which was the first jet aircraft to be assembled in Australia and was delivered to the RAAF on September 26, 1949. All Australian production Vampires were built by de Havilland Australia with a total of 80 being made.
The Vampire FB.31 was a clipped wing fighter-bomber derivative of the F.30. Besides the 23 new build FB.31s some of the existing F.30s would be converted.
As it turns out, the auxiliary intakes that gave the F.30 its power were hiding a deadly secret. It was found that as the aircraft approached its critical Mach number it had a natural tendency to pitch down. This meant that in a high-speed dive there was a very real danger of being unable to recover the Vampire. It’s not clear whether this is what led to two fatal crashes in 1951 but regardless the Australians simply moved the intakes to the bottom of the fuselage, which caused the plane to pitch up instead. Funnily enough, the intake efficiency issue of the F.2 was solved not long after the A79 entered production. Based on expertise from the design of the Sea Hawk, the new Vampire would be further refined into the SE.535 Mistral by SNCASE of France. As far as the RAAF was concerned, though, after navigation and pilot safety upgrades their Vampires were good enough.
Not that good, though, because they hardly stuck around. Due to the rapid advancement of jet technology even the more powerful Nene couldn’t save the Vampire from obsolescence. It would take only eight years for the 57 Vampire F.30s and its fighter-bomber derivative, the FB.31 (of which there were 23 plus some converted F.30s), to be fully replaced by the far more capable CA-27 Sabre. Some Vampires would continue to serve in training schools for a while, and the dedicated trainer variants especially lasted far longer. The F.30 would not see combat and was never exported to any other users.
Specifications
Vampire F.30
Dimensions:
- Length: 30 ft 9 in (9.37 m)
- Span: 40 ft 0 in (12.19 m)
- Height: 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight:
- 7,600 lb (3,447 kg) empty
- 11,000 lb (4,990 kg) all-up weight
Propulsion: 1 x Rolls-Royce Nene II-V.H. turbojet engine
- Takeoff power: 5,000 lbf (2,268 kgf) thrust
Maximum speed: 570 mph (917 km/h)
Armament:
- Guns:
- 4 x 20 mm Hispano Mk.V autocannon (150 rounds/gun, 600 total)
- Drop tanks:
- Up to 2 x 100 imp. gal. drop tank
Crew: 1 (pilot)
Additional equipment:
- Martin-Baker Mark 2F(A) ejector seat
- Armor plate in bulkheads nos. 1 & 2
- Bulletproof windscreen
- Self-sealing fuel tanks
Sources
- AAP No. 828 - Vampire Mk.30 and 31 Descriptive and Servicing Manual (August 1957)
- Postwar Military Aircraft: 5 - de Havilland Vampire, Venom and Sea Vixen by Philip Burtles (1986)
- Warpaint Series No. 27 - de Havilland Vampire by W. A. Harrison
- https://www.saam.org.au/aircraft_profiles/deHavilland-Vampire.pdf
- deHavilland Vampire | Fighterworld
- ADF-Serials Vampire