Warbird Information Exchange

I was looking at Barnstormers and saw this ad,

DE HAVILLAND VAMPIRE • $7,000 • AVAILABLE FOR SALE • Vampire MK35.Disassembled. Restore or for parts.Needs extensive wood work. Metal parts good cond. • Contact Dean L. Mackey - located Bankstown, NS Australia • Telephone: 61 2 46357598 • Posted January 25, 2005 • Show all Ads posted by this Advertiser • Recommend This Ad to a Friend • Send a Message

I didn't know that there was wood in this plane. While trying to find some info on Vampires I ran across this,

http://www.warbird.co.uk/vampire.htm

Another Vampire for sale, and he mentions the "Wood" work also. Another interesting thing about the second ad is that he says there were only three of these types shipped to Australia. The first ad is posted from Australia, so I guess its one of the three.

Hmmm, you learn something new everyday.

What is made out of wood on the Vampire?

_________________
DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "


Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

Actually the Vampire has quite alot of wood in it. We have a tandem trainer parked in our hangar here in Edmonton (not airworthy). The original single seat fighters have a fuselage made entirely of wood in the same manner methinks as it's stablemate the Mosquito. Pretty sure the wings and parts of the booms are as well. I believe metal work and a Titanium tailpipe prevented this little jet from turning into a blow torch.....literally

http://www.nzwarbirds.org.nz/vampire1.html

Dave

JeezzzLouise......Balsa wrapped with plywood. All that and Jet A and a hot engine. It's a cool, and inovative/inventive design for it's time, but, mannnn, I bet that thing will burn like the sun. I didn't see anything about an ejection seat either.

I do like the way it looks and I like the specs,540mph,1220miles. That would get me to Texas and SC from California in a decent amount of time. But, Ive always had the impression that doing a restore on a wood hulled airplane is much more difficult than an aluminum one. Is that impression correct?

_________________
DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "


Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

Hi OP et al--

Vampires--or at least the F.3 that used to be at CWH and the FB.6 that's there now--are mainly light alloy, the chief exception being the extreme nose, ie. the cockpit, which is Mossie-like wood "sandwich" construction.

Didn't know there was a Vamp trainer at Edmonton. (By "tandem" I assume you just mean a two-seater? I thought all the Vamp duals were side-by-side).

Actually there were more than three Vamps in Oz; a good number of the surviving Vamp duals are ex-RAAF T.35s. Several were imported to the USA in the 60s (reg'ns in the N119** block).

Cheers

S.

Hi O.P.



Before I got into this real airplane business, I flew a lot of R/C aircraft as probably about half the people who used this board. Suffice it to say, there is no comparison woodworking and aluminum construction are two totally different types of skill-sets.

A person good at building furniture, model planes, and doing lay up work would be comfortable with building up a Vampire. On the other hand a lifelong A&P or IA may find more ease in putting together a metal machine.

Chris

Hi

There are 50 Plus Vampires of various ilks in Aus including those imported from Zambia by Judy Pay (Two seater flying) here are some pics note that the shot of the Pod is almost all wood.

Regards
John P

_________________
Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

We used to have a Vampire, and the nose was all wood.

A jet Mosquito that thing is!!

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Olivier Lacombe -- Harvard Mk.4 C-GBQB

All the fire is behind the wing spar, all the fuselage is ahead of it. Did you know that wood buildings last longer in a fire? They burn (and char), but they don't melt and lost their strength as quickly.

Ealy Vamps did not have hot seats (or shoulder harnesses as I recall), the later ones did.

Wood can be formed into complex shapes much more readily than aluminum. It can also be cut and shaped much more easily. Nearly every Corsair you see flying has wooden ailerons. There are plenty of people doing this kind of work. The skills and tools are no more special (and perhaps less for most designs) than they are for aluminum and many people do both. Woodworking is far from a lost art.

wood is a royal pain in the posterior!! i know about wood boats. even though they float but don't fly the principle care is the same & so are the headaches!! primarily dry rot. wood aircraft or boat care is truly a labor intensive love affair!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Tom:

If you're good at wood working, I'd think it's a piece of cake. Well anyway, if everybody could do woodworking, then there'd be alot more furniture stores around.

It's only the pod that's wooden. It was near enough the same diameter as a Mossie which was useful for developing the the two seat versions.
I believe the Venom's wooden too but I wouldn't want to take bets on it.

It might not seem a particularly good idea but how long did they stay in service in Switzerland, 40-odd years?

Hi Venom and Sea Venom also wooden pods

You would be surprised how much timber is in various UK aircraft and there is nothing wrong with it given it is properly built and maintained

john P

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

The aircraft mentioned in the original post is A79-664. There is history and images available at the site below.

The fact that the fuselage is wood hasn't stopped the preservation of many examples. (although the wood is usually the first thing to rot.)
We seem to enjoy sticking them up poles!
There are two warbird examples flying in Oz, Aussie built T.35 ex A79-617 and a British built T.55 ex-Rhodesian RRAF-119.
New Zealand also has a couple of Vampire warbirds, Aussie built T35 ex A79-549 and a Swiss built example ex U-1225

For info on Aussie Vampires go to

http://www.adf-serials.com/2a79.shtml

For images including some showing wooden construction go to

http://www.adf-serials.com/gallery/Vampire

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Cataloguing the serial numbers and aircraft histories for all services
of the Australian Defence Force. See - http://www.adf-serials.com.au/

They're not quite balsa wrapped with plywood. There's an inner plywood skin, balsa packing amd then an outer plywood skin. It's really a very strong method of construction and capable of absorbing an amazing amount of damage as there are effectively no main structural members.

After Hap Arnold saw the Mosquito demonstrated at Hatfield, he returned to the States with a set of drawings.
IIRC, they were given to Beech for their comments. The response was something along the lines of: "The manufacturers appear to have sacrificed everything in order to build this aircraft out of unsuitable materials".

Wrong!