My late father was an airframe fitter on De Haviland Vampires in Iraq in 1950 (when it was still part of the British Empire) and in Egypt until 1952 (Also then part of the British Empire).
The Vampire was the world's fastest fighter in 1952 but did suffer from hydraulic leakage problems regarding the undercarriage in the hot weather, so my father told me.
My father had to help find a 1" calibre musket ball that had penetrated a port wing of one Vampire, due to some Arab taking a pot shot at one as it came into land in Egypt, and it had entered but not exited and so was rolling around inside the wing. The whole wing had to be stripped down until it was found.
He also had to sit in the cockpit of a captured Bf-110 that was still in a hangar so as to work the brakes as it was wheeled out to be scrapped.
He descrbed it as a WW2 twin engined fighter with a split tail. I showed him a Bf-110 picture and he recognised it.
Today the aircraft would be priceless in value, in 1951 it was taking up valuable hangar space.
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10-27-2009, 03:52 AM
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