What I did on my lunchbreak

I just got to love my job - today I got to be Crew Chief on this beauty, which is quite an improvement from pushing papers around my desk:

It helps to know the guy owning it - I helped take that bird apart and put her back together again. Ten points to anyone who can ID her though


Just helping the passenger - a radio journalist - strap in for the ride. Good PR for the RNoAF, and free fuel and air time for my friend.

That's bonkers. Lucky man.

Nothing like a great shave and a spin in the old jet to make your day. Nice pictures.

Now that's pretty cool. I certainly hope the passenger didn't try to touch anything inflight!

Wow, Hans, some lunch-break!!

Jeepers, Hans, I can't begin to imagine what you do on your day off if this is what you do on a lunch break.

(05-30-2012, 08:02 AM)WegianWarrior Wrote: Ten points to anyone who can ID her though

Is that an F-84?

A de Havilland 115 Vampire two seat combat capable trainer.

All I did was shave on my lunch break. Very impressive sir!!

I don't care what any of y'all say... That's Mickey Mouse's ToonPlane. I mean come on, he's right there on the side of it. How much more obvious can this get?

Sorry John, the points go to Johnny - even if I told him in another thread. Still, I'll give ten points to Brian as well for making me laugh loud enough in the morning to confuse the cat

It's a fun airplane in many ways, as well as a piece of history. Reasonable easy to work on too, even if the maintenance concept is very British indeed which requires a bit of a different though process for those of us who are used to working mainly on US aircraft of a somewhat more modern vintage*. It does give a sense of satisfaction when you can get something repaired that you simply can't get replaced - spare parts are few and far between for an aircraft this old.

I was lucky enough to get a ride as a "thank you" for helping getting it airborne after taking her to pieces and putting her together again. For those curious, I got some pictures up here (link).

*) F-5s and F-16s, with a bit of helicopter experience thrown in before I started pushing papers around on a desk.

Too cool!

Hans, are those swept back wings? If so, will it go supersonic?

This beats the crap out of the errands I ran during my lunch hour. Thanks a lot, Hans!

Brian, the Vampire had straight wings - well, technically speaking straight and equal tapered wings - but what keeps it from going supersonic is the thickness of the wing in relation to the wing cord; seen with modern eyes the 14% thickness is huge. In combination with the non laminar flow airfoil this limits the Vamp to about 0.75 Mach - or about 880kmh / 550mph / 475kts - which was fast for a fighter when the Vampire was designed and first flown in 1943.

The de Havilland company later refined the basic design with a thinner wing and more powerful engine to produce the dH 112 Venom, but seen in hindsight it was too little too late.

The fuselage and cockpit of the Vampire was also used as the starting point for designing the dH 108 Swallow experimental aircraft; while it had an unfortunate habit of killing it's pilots, the Swallow was probably the first European built aircraft to exceed the speed of sound.

Hans, I'm writing this sitting in San Diego International Airport waiting for the first of my two very long and tedious flights to Edinburgh, Scotland. I just looked at your photos and your flight looks like wayyyyyyyy more fun than mine will be.

Commercial flying, these days, is an endurance test. I used to say that my vacation started as soon as I got on the plane. Now I say it starts as soon as I get off.

Flying across the pond is no fun at all these days unless you're in first class - and who can afford that? On the other hand, you're more likely to retain your meals...

It was great fun - in particular when we had a F-16 on either wing - but I'm not ashamed to admit I had to resort to the little baggie towards the end

I hope you have/had a safe flight Freddy, and enjoy your stay in Edinburgh.

wow and to think i just eat on my lunch break. way to go

What a great way to spend your lunch break.
Awesome pictures too.
Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, it's the Swallow I was thinking of. But what little I could see of the wing, it looked swept back. I forgot about the tiny problem the Swallow had with pilots.

It must have an axial engine? The fuselage looks like a guppy.

That's a pretty neat piece of history.

The engine is a de Havilland Goblin 35 - single sided centrifugal compressor, sixteen big flame cans and a singe axial turbine (which weights about a ton or so when you try to mount it on the back of the engine). 15.6kN of trust, still runs smooth after all these years.

And is it pretty cool to get my hands on a piece of history like that