Rabbit Leader Posted August 17, 2016 Share Posted August 17, 2016 (edited) All, I'm just trying to revive a bit of modelling mojo with Airfix's neat little Vampire T.11 and something caught my eye whilst studying photographs of the real thing. It would appear that somewhere along the production run (or perhaps a late retro fit) a number of these aircraft were fitted with four cannon shell ejector chutes under the belly, similar to what appears on the Venom aircraft. Also, the Airfix kit has three lumps / bumps on the one piece nose wheel bay / cannon port section (part A7), which I believe may only be relevant to the resorted example WZ507 as flown by the Vampire Preservation Group. I wish to build my kit as XH359 'X' from 45 Squadron, Tengah 1957 so ideally someone out there is of the know and can confirm or deny my findings - A. are the cannon ejector shutes present on XH359? B. do the lumps and bumps need to be removed for said serial? Cheers and thanks... Dave. Edited August 19, 2016 by Rabbit Leader Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 In Chris Sandham Bailey's excellent and recent 'Cold War Jets', there are multiple illustrations of the T.11, some with, and others without ejector chutes, unfortunately with no explanation to distinguish why this was the case. Rather confusingly the plan drawings for the T.11 in the same publication show the ejectors in the lateral, but not the underside plan view. No help to you at all except to confirm the variability of this feature Dave. Sorry. Tony 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted August 19, 2016 Author Share Posted August 19, 2016 Thanks for taking a look at this Tony. Your findings also confirms my research in that they are quite sporadic and almost random. It would be nice to know if some modification programe was incorporated during the mid-fifties, however this information will probably never surface. I also believe that there may be some link with these ejector chutes (I've corrected my previous mis-spelling) and those two upper wing di-pole (I think) antenna's. As XH359 has these, I'm starting to think that ejector chutes need to be incorporated into my kit as well. Cheers .. Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelh Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 (edited) It occurs to me that perhaps the ejector chutes were detachable and only fitted if in fact the cannons were loaded for use or the aircraft in question was regularly used for firing. If you could find a picture of the same aircraft one with and one without the chutes, that would confirm it.? Just a thought. Edited August 19, 2016 by noelh 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ascoteer Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 This might help: http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/aircraft/de-havilland-dh115-vampire-t-11/ The gun fit would be removed for a/c used in the AFTS role but retained for the weapons training role. The wing dipole antennae were the Rebecca Mk8 aerials. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted August 19, 2016 Author Share Posted August 19, 2016 (edited) Many thanks for the last two responses. Removable chutes seem very feasible, I had not thought of that. I suppose I'd need to check if 45 Squadons T.11's would have been used for gunnery practice or just as a squadron hack. Photos that I have only show the upper and starboard side view, I've not seen any photos that clearly show the underside. Once again - cheers and thanks.. Dave Edited August 19, 2016 by Rabbit Leader 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selwyn Posted August 19, 2016 Share Posted August 19, 2016 All, I'm just trying to revive a bit of modelling mojo with Airfix's neat little Vampire T.11 and something caught my eye whilst studying photographs of the real thing. It would appear that somewhere along the production run (or perhaps a late retro fit) a number of these aircraft were fitted with four cannon shell ejector chutes under the belly, similar to what appears on the Venom aircraft. Also, the Airfix kit has three lumps / bumps on the one piece nose wheel bay / cannon port section (part A7), which I believe may only be relevant to the resorted example WZ507 as flown by the Vampire Preservation Group. I wish to build my kit as XH359 'X' from 45 Squadron, Tengah 1957 so ideally someone out there is of the know and can confirm or deny my findings - A. are the cannon ejector shutes present on XH359? B. do the lumps and bumps need to be removed for said serial? Cheers and thanks... Dave. These chutes are actually link chutes, installed to stop the links striking the airframe when firing, a common problem that was seen on a lot of military aircraft. The Cannon spent cases on most types of gun are usually ejected with some force on firing which gets them away from the aircraft, however the links would normally just drop out under the force of gravity, causing the problem. More modern aircraft designs were either designed to keep the links and / or cases, or modified in some way to alleviate this problem, (remember the retrofitted Hunter Sabrinas?). The modern Typhoon probably has the ultimate system as it keeps the cases but has a linkless ammunition system which solves the link problem completely! Selwyn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rabbit Leader Posted August 20, 2016 Author Share Posted August 20, 2016 Always appreciate the technical perspective on things Selwyn, it helps understand this hobby that we all enjoy much better. Cheers.. Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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