de Havilland Vampire (DH.100 / DH.115)

Updated: October 2026 – A short, rounded pod, behind it two thin booms with a tail between them: the de Havilland Vampire looks like no other jet. It first flew in 1943, joined the Royal Air Force in 1946 and became one of the most widely built jet fighters of the postwar era. For fans in Switzerland, it has special significance: for over four decades it served with the Swiss Air Force, and a large share was built in the country itself. Here you’ll learn what sets the DH.100 single-seater and the DH.115 trainer apart, how to recognize them and where you can still see them today.

What is the de Havilland Vampire?

The Vampire is a single-engine jet fighter from the British manufacturer de Havilland of Hatfield. Together with the German Messerschmitt Me 262 and the British Gloster Meteor, it belongs to the very first generation of jet fighters. While the Meteor carried two engines in its wings, de Havilland bet on a single engine in a short fuselage pod.

The result is an unusual layout: cockpit and engine sit in the pod, and the tail hangs from two slim tail booms running rearward from the wings. The reason was technical: the early jet engines had little thrust, and any long exhaust duct would have cost additional power. With the pod, the path from engine to nozzle stayed short.

Power came from the de Havilland Goblin, a centrifugal-compressor engine that goes back to work by Frank Halford. It initially delivered around 9.3 kN of thrust, later versions considerably more. Until then, de Havilland had been known mainly for propeller aircraft such as the Tiger Moth and the Mosquito. With the Vampire and Goblin it entered the jet age – a path that led a few years later to the Comet airliner.

Development: from wartime project to postwar fighter

Work on the fighter began in the middle of World War II; internally the project was at times known as “Spider Crab.” On September 20, 1943, the prototype LZ548/G took off at Hatfield, with Geoffrey de Havilland Jr., the son of the company’s founder, at the controls. By the time production aircraft were ready, the war was over – the Royal Air Force put the first Vampire F.1 into service in 1946.

In the following years, the type produced several firsts:

• December 3, 1945: naval aviator Eric “Winkle” Brown, flying a Sea Vampire, became the first pilot to land a pure jet aircraft on an aircraft carrier, and took off again as well.
• March 23, 1948: John Cunningham, later the Comet’s test pilot, set an altitude world record of 18,119 meters in a modified Vampire.
• July 14, 1948: six Vampire F.3s of No. 54 Squadron became the first jet aircraft to cross the Atlantic.

From the F.1, de Havilland developed the F.3 with more range and finally the FB.5 fighter-bomber with strengthened, slightly shortened wings and hardpoints for bombs, rockets and drop tanks. The FB.6 with the more powerful Goblin 3 was above all an export version – and it was precisely this version that flew in large numbers in Switzerland. The FB.9 with air conditioning was created for hot operating regions.

The versions at a glance

The Vampire family is large. For spotters and museum visitors, the following groups are usually enough.

Version	Project	Feature	Note
F.1 / F.3	DH.100	First fighter versions	F.3 with more fuel, Atlantic crossing in 1948
FB.5 / FB.9	DH.100	Fighter-bomber, external loads under the wing	FB.9 with air conditioning for the tropics
FB.6 / FB.52	DH.100	Export version with Goblin 3	Switzerland (Mk.6), Norway, Italy, India and others
Sea Vampire	DH.100	Naval version with arrestor hook	First flight of the production version in 1948
NF.10	DH.113	Two-seat night fighter with radar	One example in Switzerland for trials in 1952
T.11 / T.55	DH.115	Two-seat trainer, seats side by side	First flight 1950, in Switzerland as DH-115 Mk 55

The picture also includes the licensed builds. In France, Sud-Est (SNCASE) built the Vampire and developed it into the Mistral with a Rolls-Royce Nene engine, around 250 of them. In Italy, Fiat and Macchi built 150 FB.52s, in India Hindustan Aircraft 247 FB.52s plus trainers. De Havilland Australia built 80 fighters with Nene engines. Depending on how licensed builds are counted, sources give different totals; 3,268 aircraft from British production is established.

The DH.115 trainer

Many Vampires that you see today in a museum or in the air are not single-seaters but trainers. The DH.115 first flew on November 15, 1950 at the former Airspeed plant in Christchurch (Hampshire). From January 1952, de Havilland delivered production aircraft to the Royal Air Force, where they became the standard trainer for aspiring jet pilots as the T.11. They were built at Hatfield, Chester and at Fairey in Manchester.

The trainer keeps the pod and tail booms but has a wider fuselage nose in which instructor and student sit side by side. That sets it apart from most later jet trainers with tandem seating. Export customers mostly received the version as the T.55. In the mid-1960s, the Folland Gnat replaced the trainer in advanced training in Great Britain.

The Vampire in Switzerland

Hardly any country flew the Vampire as long and as intensively as Switzerland. The story begins in 1946: the Swiss Air Force bought four Vampire F.1s and gained its first experience with jet aircraft. One aircraft was lost as early as August 1946, and the other three stayed in the inventory until 1961.

Purchase and licensed production of the Mk.6

The big procurement followed in 1949. A first batch of 75 Mk.6 with the serials J-1005 to J-1079 was bought. In parallel, Switzerland signed a contract for production in the country itself: a second batch of 100 Mk.6 (J-1101 to J-1200) was built under license at the Eidgenössische Flugzeugwerke Emmen (Federal Aircraft Factory), at Pilatus in Stans and at the Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein. The Goblin engines came from Great Britain. Three more aircraft (J-1080 to J-1082) were assembled from spare parts. In total, 178 Mk.6 flew in Swiss colors.

Batch	Serials	Number	Service
Vampire F.1	–	4	from 1946, the last until 1961
Mk.6, first batch (bought)	J-1005 to J-1079	75	from 1949, retired 1968/69, last 1973
Mk.6 from spare parts	J-1080 to J-1082	3	–
Mk.6, licensed production	J-1101 to J-1200	100	1951 to 1974, some until 1990 for training and target duties
DH-115 Mk 55 (trainer)	U-1201 to U-1239	39	1953 to 1990

Daily operations, risks and replacement

In daily operations, the Vampire also showed weaknesses. Several fatal accidents are on record that were linked to the aircraft’s tendency to stall in tight turns. Ejection seats came to Switzerland only after about ten years of operation and only gradually. The Vampire was nevertheless the aircraft with which an entire generation of pilots moved into the jet age.

From the late 1950s, Switzerland procured the Hawker Hunter, which gradually replaced the Vampire as a front-line fighter. The single-seaters were retired in the late 1960s and early 1970s, while the DH-115 trainers stayed in training until 1990. That made Switzerland one of the last military users worldwide. The J- and U- serials are military, by the way; how civil Swiss aircraft are registered is explained in the article on Swiss HB- registrations.

Other users: Sweden, Norway and many more

The Vampire was an export hit. Users included Australia, Canada, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Finland, Egypt and Rhodesia, among others.

Sweden flew the Vampire as the J 28. From 1946, 70 J 28As arrived, from 1949 came 310 FB.50s as the J 28B, plus 57 trainers as the J 28C. As fighters, they were replaced in 1956 by the Saab J 29 Tunnan and the Hunter (J 34); the last trainer flew in 1968. A few examples are shown by the Flygvapenmuseum in Linköping; you’ll find the spot guide for it at Flygvapenmuseum at Malmen airfield.

Norway procured 20 F.3s, 36 FB.52s and six T.55 trainers. The fighters flew from 1948 to 1957 in a wing with three squadrons at Gardermoen, then the Republic F-84G Thunderjet took over. A Vampire now stands at the Forsvarets flysamling in Gardermoen, right at Oslo Airport.

How to recognize the Vampire

In a museum or on the apron at an air show, you need only a few seconds for the Vampire. These steps help you reliably tell single-seaters and trainers apart as well.

The serial on the tail boom or on the pod then gives the exact version. On Swiss aircraft, the J or U before the number tells you whether you’re looking at a single-seater or a two-seater. For general tips on identifying vintage aircraft, see the guide Recognizing historic aircraft.

Vampire, Venom, Hunter or MiG-15?

Several early jets turn up in the same museums and at the same air shows. The finder narrows it down.

The Venom is the direct development of the Vampire with a more powerful Ghost engine; it also flew in Switzerland. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 and the North American F-86 Sabre belong to the next generation with swept wings. The Hunter, in turn, is the aircraft with which the Patrouille Suisse started in 1964 – there was no Vampire aerobatic team there.

Where to see the Vampire today

In military service, the Vampire has long been history; the Swiss trainers were among the last in use until 1990. It is well represented in museums, though: according to English-language Wikipedia, more than 180 examples in around 30 countries are preserved worldwide.

Location	What you see	Note
Flieger Flab Museum Dübendorf	Single-seater and DH-115 trainer	The most important address for Swiss Vampires
Prague-Kbely Aviation Museum	Vampire in Swiss colors	Ex-Swiss aircraft in the Czech museum
Flygvapenmuseum Linköping	Vampire as J 28	Part of the Swedish jet collection
Forsvarets flysamling Gardermoen	Norwegian Vampire	Right at Oslo Airport
Volandia near Malpensa	DH.100 Vampire	Italy built the FB.52 under license
East Midlands Aeropark	Two Vampires	Museum visit and spotting at the airport can be combined

For fans from Switzerland and southern Germany, Dübendorf is the obvious starting point; you’ll find the matching spot guide at Flieger Flab Museum at Dübendorf airfield. The manufacturer’s company history around Hatfield is shown by the de Havilland Aircraft Museum north of London.

Airworthy Vampires: rare, but they exist

After retirement in Switzerland, many aircraft – above all trainers – passed into private hands and to clubs at home and abroad. Some were shown at air shows for years. According to Wikipedia, more than a dozen Vampires in around ten countries are still airworthy worldwide; the exact number fluctuates because jets of this age keep going into maintenance for long periods or stay on the ground altogether.

Well known, among others, are the displays by the historic flight of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, which showed a restored FB.52 and a T.55 trainer at international air shows. Vampires are also preserved in the USA, Australia and South Africa; in the USA, some aircraft even took off at the Reno Air Races.

In Switzerland, the Fliegermuseum Altenrhein was long an address for flying jets, including Vampires as single-seaters and trainers. The fleet the museum shows on its website today, however, consists of propeller aircraft such as the Pilatus P-3, Pilatus PC-7 and Dornier Do 27. More on that in the spot guide Fliegermuseum Altenrhein.

Photo tips for the Vampire

The Vampire is small and sits low to the ground. That calls for a slightly different approach than with large jets.

At air shows, the Vampire is fast and small in the viewfinder; the tips in the article Photographing air shows help with shutter speed and panning. When the light is favorable for outdoor displays, you can work out in advance with the sun position planner in Planetrack. If you photograph at active military airfields, note the guidance on military airfields and photo rules.

Conclusion

The de Havilland Vampire stands at the beginning of the jet age. Its layout with a pod and two tail booms was a pragmatic answer to the weak engines of the 1940s and makes it unmistakable to this day. For Switzerland, it was more than an imported aircraft: a large share of the fleet was built in the country itself, and the trainers flew until 1990. If you want to see one, you’ll find it reliably in museums like Dübendorf, and with some luck still in the air.