Vampire Jets

We have a second order to supply Hendrick with our Resolution 816 epoxy and 205 cure agent,while the plane may fly,its construction is wood being in plywood made from birch,so when we think of it,planes and yachts are very similar,they both fly in one way or another!

The Vampire Jet designed by de Havilland, Hatfield. Some 1500 were built at English Electric Preston in the 1940's.

Design and development

Interior layout of the Vampire FB Mk2The Vampire was considered to be a largely experimental design due to its unorthodox arrangement and the use of a single engine, unlike the Gloster Meteor which was always specified for production. The low-powered early British jet engines meant that only twin-engine aircraft designs were considered practical; but as more powerful engines were developed, particularly Frank Halford's H.1 (later known as the Goblin), a single-engined jet fighter became more viable. De Havilland were approached to produce an airframe for the H.1, and their first design, the DH.99, was an all-metal, twin-boom, tricycle undercarriage aircraft armed with four cannons. The use of a twin boom (similar to that of the Lockheed P-38) kept the jet pipe short which avoided the power loss of a long pipe that would have been needed in a conventional fuselage. The DH.99 was modified to a mixed wood and metal construction in light of Ministry of Aircraft Production recommendations, and the design was renumbered to DH.100 by November 1941.[2]

Under specification E.6/41 for two prototypes, design work on the DH.100 began at the de Havilland works at Hatfield in mid-1942, two years after the Meteor.[3]