At our weekly Gloucestershire Airport Live Stream, we had the fantastic opportunity to interview Mark Hooton who owns and flies the last remaining ex-RAF de Havilland Vampire. Mark tells us all about how he came to own the Vampire and some of the complex operating procedures and interesting facts about this beautiful aircraft.
Thanks to Justin Collinge from the Staverton Spotters Facebook Group for allowing us to use his fantastic photos of this Vampire in the intro!
The CAA registration for this aircraft is G-VTII but there is a CAA permission to use the original military registration of WZ507 instead. This enables Mark to display the Vampire in authentic RAF colours. This aircraft served in the RAF from 1953 to 1969.
In 2008 the aircraft’s paint was stripped back to bare metal (and wood!), the airframe treated to prevent corrosion and then repainted, which has helped preserve the aircraft in A1 condition.
In 2011 the existing Goblin engine was repalced with another example, which had only logged around 100 hours flying time. The new engine was completely stripped down, inspected and rebuilt before installation, which has extended the life of our aircraft enormously.
11