vampiredave

The DH 113 Vampire night-fighter was originally designed as a cheap export aircraft utilizing the wings and tail unit of de Havilland's proven single-seat Vampire day fighter. As the diameter of the Vampire nacelle at the cockpit co-incided almost exactly with that of the Mosquito, it retained the latter's side-by-side seating arrangement with the navigator / radar operator sitting in the right-hand seat, offset slightly behind the pilot. The tubular-structured canopy embodied an upward opening rear-hinged lid on the top for crew access, which could be jettisoned in the event of an emergency. No provision was made for ejection seats. The wooden fuselage nacelle was also lengthened by 3ft.10 in. to house the scanner unit of the Mosquito's AI Mk. 10 radar In 1953, the requirement for a high-speed navigation trainer for the RAF saw a resurgence of interest in the Vampire NF 10, many of which were languishing in storage at various maintenance units with minimal airframe flying hours. The contract for converting the Vampires to navigation trainers was awarded to Airwork General Trading Ltd; the work being carried out at Speke (Liverpool Airport) between March 1954 and December 1955. The AI Mk.10 radar was removed from the aircraft's nose and replaced by concrete weights, and Rebecca Mk.IV / BABS was installed to complement the Gee Mk.3. The night-fighter's four 20mm cannon arrangement was retained to maintain its centre of gravity, and a completely new quick-release clear-view canopy – Mod. No.3151 – was fitted to replace the heavily framed 'clamshell'. Although this work involved a major redesign of the Vampire's cockpit, provision was still not made for ejection seats. On 5 March 1954 the first of thirty-six Vampires to be converted (WM713 and WM729) were flown to Speke. The serials of the airframes involved in the conversion to navigation trainers were: WM668, WM670, WM672, WM674, WM677, WM703 - WM706, WM711 - WM714, WM716, WM718, WM727, WM729, WM730, WM733, WP232 - WP236, WP238, WP239, WP242, WP243, WP245, WP247 - WP249, WP251, WP253, WP255 and WP256. I seem unable to post pictures of the cockpit arrangement?

I must emphasise that I am not an expert on individual paint schemes but was most fortunate to interview a number of former 'Blue Diamond' team members when I researching for my book on RAF aerobatic teams, including Brian Mercer and Brian Allchin. They both stated that the paint scheme was "Rich Royal Blue overall with a white lightning flash running the length of the fuselage.............."

This may prove interesting? It was while the squadron was detached to Cyprus (January 1961) that the first aircraft began to be ferried out from the UK, painted in the new and distinctive Rich Royal Blue colour scheme. The colour scheme for the Hunters had been carefully chosen by Brian Mercer: Treble One was Black. White gets oil-stained beneath the fuselage. Red is the Belgian team's colour. Orange is an aesthetic disaster. Yellow is for Training Command. Green is considered unlucky. But Blue is the RAF colour. Flt Lt Brian Allchin had joined the squadron in February 1959 and flew with the reserve team the following year. He went on to fly with the official team in 1961 and 1962 and had a personal interest in the selection of the colour scheme: It was befitting a premier team to have its own individual colour scheme and there had been various experiments, all based on shades of blue. One trial involved a white aircraft nose and cheat-line, which extended the length of the aircraft, together with variations in the rake of the fin flash. In the end, it was my aircraft (XG186) that was completed in the ultimate scheme by a team from Cellon, with the remainder of the aircraft being repainted at Cambridge.

I always thought that 'Bone Domes' were introduced when ejection seats were fitted

Any colour you want, as long as it's black!

With the confirmation that 111 Squadron had been chosen as the RAF's premier aerobatic team in 1957 (it was already the official No.11 Group team) the first Hunter to be sprayed in the all-black scheme by Cellon at North Weald was XG201: B in late February / early March 1957. It also featured the temporary application of the squadron's black and yellow bars on the fuselage. With the imminent closure of North Weald, the squadron was temporarily detached to North Luffenham in February 1958 while the new runways were being resurfaced at Wattisham, to which it moved in June 1958.

Initially, the two original Jet Provost T Mk.4s retained their red and white training colours, but in May 1976 they were repainted in a tactical camouflage scheme to provide more realism in the FAC role; the first aircraft to be repainted being XP547 As has already been confirmed, the Jet Provosts were never operated at Chivenor

I was at RAF Little Rissington when Jet Provost T. Mk 3s / 4s were part of the Red Pelicans team All underside aerials were yellow, while the cockpit, including the instrument panel, were predominately black. When the RAF's Jet Provost fleet received an avionic's upgrade during the 1970s, the JP4A's / JP 5A's featured a new grey cockpit and IP; the Red Pelican's were operating Jet Provost T Mk.5s by that time, anyway. As it has already been stated, the team aircraft were part of the CFS inventory and used for routine QFI training; they were withdrawn from the flight line for display purposes.

Meteor F Mk.8, WH291, was operated by No.79 (R) Squadron's Towed Target flight from October 1970 until August 1974 and painted in the overall Grey scheme (including the undersurfaces). It was sent for servicing and returned without the Day Glo strips by 1972 but retained the squadron fuselage marking. It never featured the Black / Yellow TT Stripes

That comment is interesting as the standard of the elevators remained the same from the Piston Provost up to the Jet Provost Mk.3, after which a different standard was introduced for the Mk.4 / Mk.5 and the Strikemaster, including revised full chord elevator balances. Also, up to the upgraded avionic's fit installed to bring the Mk.3 to the Mk.3A standard in the early 1970s. the cockpit was predominately black. Following the upgrade work the cockpit colour became DAG to conform with the 5A

Early Mk3’ s and most Mk4’s had Rebecca Mk 8 installed and the yellow aerials were under both wings. Airfix also forgot to include the two lamps and formation light in the nose. The two intakes on the of the top fuselage were also slightly larger on the Mk.4

It's not a Hunter from Chivenor, it belongs to No.4 FTS Valley.

Meindert: That is an absolutely superb conversion of the Jet Provost T Mk.1 - brilliant! I have no wish to rain your parade, however, but your write-up on the background to the Jet Provost team is not entirely accurate. The 'Sparrows' was an earlier team from CFS (Basic) at South Cerney, flying four Piston Provost T Mk.1s in 1957. The Jet Provost T Mk.1 team was formed at Little Rissington in early 1958, led by Flt Lt Norman Giffin. Problems with an appropriate name for the team eventually resulted in the rather uninspiring "The CFS Jet Aerobatic Team"! Don't rely too heavily on that aerobatic team forum featured on the excellent IPMS site as it has quite a few errors when it comes to RAF teams. David

I though that I had put this up before, but Hey Ho! 1961: Four Jet Provost T.3s of the CFS, Little Rissington, "The Central Flying School Aerobatic Team". Flt Lts F R Brambley and D T McCann, Plt Off B A D McK McDonald and Flt Lt I K McKee. Reserves: Flt Lts T H Whittingham and W W Elsegood. XN511:R-W, XN512:R-X, XN549:R-W, XN550:S-A, XN554:S-E, XN557:S-F, XN573:S-G 1962: Five Jet Provost T4s of CFS, Little Rissington, “The Red Pelicans”. Flt Lts I K McKee, K F Beck, I Bashall, J E S Rolfe and R G Fox. Reserve: Flt Lt A J R Doyle. XP550:41, XP551:42, XP552:43, XP553:44, XP554:45, XP572:48, XP573:49 Ray, Don't get too stressed about not posting images - it doesn't work for me either!

Ray is quite correct with the team's aircraft serials as the list was 'corrupted' by the printers. BTW: XM698 was not a team aircraft

As we were both at CFS at roughly the same time, I have just spoken to Ray Deacon to confirm markings on the Vampire: "Vampire XK624 had red Scotchal tape stripes. The true VP T.11 XH304 had deep yellow training bands which were definitely not day-glo red or orange."

Interestingly, I have two photographs of the two TT Flight Meteors in question at Brawdy (I was a Chivenor man!), given to me by Rod Dean. Looking at the Mk.8, I spotted a White inscription on the port side, in white. I tried to enhance it to read it, without success. The Mk.7 is camouflaged, with what looks like the Squadron bars of 111 Squadron flanking the fuselage roundel, ie, Black with Yellow borders. I can't see any inscription.

In 1974, Meteor F Mk.8 VZ467 of RAF Chivenor's Towing Flight was repainted with the colours of No.615 (County of Surrey) Squadron RAuxAF as part of a proposed flypast at the centenary birth celebrations of Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill had been the Honorary Commodore of 615 Squadron and it was considered appropriate to repaint the Meteor in their colours. Although the flypast was eventually cancelled, the Meteor remained in the squadron colours for some time, and was affectionately dubbed 'Winston'. The TT Flight's Meteor T Mk.7 was the 'personal'aircraft of the CO, Gp Capt Ian Pedder following his ejection from a Hunter in July 1973 and allegedly dubbed 'Clementine' - although I can never recall both names actually being applied?

You are obviously not looking in the right place: Sixteen Vampire FB 9s, SR100 to SR115 (WX212, WX219, WX228, WX231 to WX223, WX235 to WX242, WX256 and WX260) were ferried from RAF Benson to Salisbury, with the first four aircraft (SR100 to SR103) arriving at New Salisbury Airport on 12 December 1953. These aircraft were delivered by Major A O G (Archie) Wilson, Lt D A (Dicky) Bradshaw, Lt Mike Schumann and Lt Charles H Paxton, all of whom had previously received their jet conversion training at No.208 AFS, RAF Merryfield. On 20 May 1954, a further batch of four aircraft (SR104 to SR107) was delivered and accompanied by a Vampire trainer (XD454) flown by two RAF instructors, Flt Lt E Richards and Flt Lt J Upton, to help with the jet conversion of the SRAF pilots. The order for Vampire FB 9s was completed on 4 May 1955 with the delivery of SR110 and SR111. These were followed, between March and October 1955, by sixteen Vampire T 11s, SR116 to SR131, (XE816 to XE819, XE823 to XE826, XE938 to XE941, XH268 to XH270, and XH275), the first of which arrived at Salisbury Airport on 5 March. In October 1954 the SRAF changed its name again when the Queen conferred the prefix 'Royal' and the Vampire serials were changed accordingly to RRAF100 to RRAF115 for the fighters and RRAF116 to RRAF131 for the trainers. Between 1974 and 1977, additional Vampire airframes and spares were received from the South African Air Force to maintain its capability during the prolonged Bush War .These aircraft had been held in storage following their withdrawal from service two years earlier and included nineteen Vampire T 55s, thirteen Vampire FB 9s and four Vampire FB 52s.

I have an image given to me by the Squadron aerobatic team leader, Eddie Edmonds, which shows the fin and rudder is in silver. He was at CFS when I was at Little Rissington led the Jet Provost team in 1966 - 'The Red Pelicans' . The team comprised Four Meteor F.8s of No.610 (County of Chester) Squadron, Hooton Park, Flt Lt D L Edmonds, Fg Offs C Sadler, J O Hughes and Flt Sgt M Davison.

Thank you for confirming the identity of the Meteor furthest from the camera. As anyone who has a copy of this article will undoubtedly agree that the image is quite poor and I had to look at it quite a few times before I considered it to be "WK681". As mentioned several times previously, a much clearer copy will resolve the question for the OP?

"We Were The Tops" by Mike Holmes FlyPast January 2001 Image credited to Gloster Aircraft The serial of the second Meteor 'Y' is obscured by the tailplane of the one in the foreground (possibly WE957 or WH368?) WA929:W, WA994:X, WH316:Q, WF...?, WE853:Z and WK681:R

I have just found the correspondence I had with Roger about this formation, which is indeed the squadron aerobatic team. The image is a 'Flight' copyright 29567S and the aircraft are WA981/G (Flt Lt Jack Fryer), WK827/T (Flt Lt Mike Gill), WK681/H (Flt Lt Angus Lethem) and WK987/D (Fg Off 'Wally'' Bainbridge). Although not clear from the image the team aircraft featured red rudders '

Roger and I discussed this image at great length and it depicts the squadron aerobatic team - 'The Fabulous Four' - during November 1954 and led By Flt Lt Jack Fryer Four Meteor F.8s of No.65 Squadron, Duxford, Flts J A Fryer, M Gill and D J Lethem, and Fg Off S W Bainbridge.

I would agree that it is difficult to determine the actual colour from a black & white image, but I am intrigued why the "OP" thought that the Jet Provosts were from "Stradishall"? BTW: the image of the 2 FTS JPs was flown by the instructors from No.2 FTS, Syerston, on 22 March 1960. This is one of a series taken on the day and I have a colour image of this formation, which I seem to be unable to post?