de Havilland DH 100 Vampire/Spider Crab, pre-projects, prototypes & projects

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roadrunner2

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hello,
has anybody some information about the vampire TG-278 with extended wings span ?
How mutch extended ? How are the new wings tip ? Is there differant engine acces doors due to the remplacement of the Goblin by a Ghost 2 ?....
 
An excuse to look in de Havilland Twin Boom Fighters by B Jones I bought recently;

TG278 had the winds extended to 48ft by the addition of pointed outer wing sections. The Ghost engine was 5" longer and 3" greater in diameter requiring the engine bay to be enlarged. The access doors don't look particularly different to the normal Goblin engined versions. The pressurised cockpit was strengthened by having a metal canopy with circular portholes on each side.
 
roadrunner2 said:
thanks red admiral.
is there any drawing ?
Click to expand...

No drawings but four pictures.
#1 is a close up of the rear fuselage with the enlarged engine bay
#2 is from 23/03/48 as TG278 comes in to land after establishing the record
#3 and #4 are pictures of when it was on static display at 1948 SBAC display painted white

Its interesting that the picture of TG278 in flight is different from the one Justo posted. The wings are much higher aspect ratio and have a very pronounced point at the tip. Also, no cannon installation.

I can't give a book review on it yet as I haven't had time to read it since buying it over Christmas.
 
Hi all
I've three photos of the TG 278. two before modification
(as the one above) and one with the modified wings
This plane is said to be the 5th MK 1 construted by
English Electric and later modified with a Ghost engine.
I have also a photo of the TG 276 with additional air
intakes above the engine bay and no detail.
Has someone an answer. thanks
 
TG 276 was fitted with a Rolls-Royce Nene engine. The elephant ears behind the cockpit are for extra air to be delivered to the rear side of the compressor.
 
E.6/41 was the Ministry specification for which de Havilland designed the DH 100 Spider Crab, later renamed the Vampire. This drawing shows a preliminary version of that design and therefore belongs in that thread, it should not have one of its own. How do we get it merged across?

done !
 
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Does anyone know why some of the Royal Navy's Sea Vampire F.20s had a landing hook system above the engine exhaust and others didn't ?
Nevertheless, they are all still described as Sea Vampire F.20.
Royal Navy Sea Vampire F.20 (VV138) on HMS Theseus.jpg Royal Navy Sea Vampire F.20 (VV149) inflight (1948).png
 
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So far I could only find pictures of one specific Sea Vampire, VV149 (and all taken in 1948), which don't show the presence of an arrestor hook installed. All of those pics are labelled as being from 1948 as well.

My guess would be that's due to this:
The first batch of Vampires FB.Mk.5's were built at Preston and flown down to Hatfield to be modified into the F.20 specification, which included modified wings, air brakes, main undercarriage and the fitting of a arrestor hook to stop the aircraft when landing on a carrier deck.
[...] The first unit to fly the Sea Vampire was 702 Sqn FAA, who formed the Naval Jet Evaluation & Training Unit in April 1949
Click to expand...
Source

So I would go on to speculate that those pictures of VV149 (which, by the way, are all taken over land, not at sea) come from before the aircraft reached Hatfield to be modified into a F.20, or have been taken during trials of the new components, but before the installation of the arrestor hook.
The pics being from 1948 also imply that the aircraft had not yet reached full operational FAA service, since the formation of the Naval Jet Evaluation & Training Unit took place in April 1949.
 

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