de Havilland Vampire at 'Airbourne' - the Eastbourne Airshow, Norwegian Air Force historic vintage classic jet plane over sea water
The de Havilland Vampire was a British jet fighter developed and manufactured by de Havilland. Having been developed during the Second World War to harness the newly developed jet engine, the Vampire entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1945. It was the second jet fighter, after the Gloster Meteor, operated by the RAF and its first to be powered by a single jet engine. The RAF used the Vampire as a front line fighter until 1953 before it assumed secondary roles such as pilot training. It was retired by the RAF in 1966, replaced by the Hawker Hunter and Gloster Javelin. It achieved several aviation firsts and records, including being the first jet aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The Vampire had many export sales and was operated by various air forces. It participated in subsequent conflicts such as the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Malayan emergency and the Rhodesian Bush War. Almost 3,300 Vampires were manufactured, a quarter of them built under licence in other Royal Norwegian Air Force purchased 20 Vampires , 36 and six trainers. The Vampire was in use in Norway from 1948 to 1957 equipping a three-squadron Vampire wing at Gardermoen. This Vampire is operated by The NORWEGIAN AIR FORCE HISTORICAL SQUADRON, a non-profit organisation, dedicated to keeping unique aircraft where they belong - in the air! They display them to the public at airshows such as here at Eastbourne. de Havilland Vampire , marked PX-K and registered LN-DHY was license built in Switzerland in the year of 1952 as serial No 705, the aircraft was flown with the Swiss Air Force marked as Vampire J-1196 until 1990. A French owner flew it for a couple of years until it was sold to Christer Andskär in Sweden and registered SE-DXS. The aircraft was purchased from Sweden in May 2011 from Christer Andskär and is now operated by the Flyvåpnets Historiske Skvadron and based at Rygge Air Base near Oslo in southern Norway.
Size: 4999px × 3314px
Location: Eastbourne, UK
Photo credit: © Avpics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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