de Havilland Vampire

HOME » INDIAN NAVY HISTORY » THE YESTERYEAR AIR ARM » DE HAVILLAND VAMPIRE

DE HAVILLAND VAMPIRE

The era of jets came to the Indian Navy with the procurement of three Vampire FB Mk.52s and one T-55 two seater in September 1957. They were procured to enable the naval airmen to gain experience on jets in view of the impending induction of the Sea Hawks. The Naval Jet Flight (NJF), later designated as INAS 550 "A" Flight, was formed at Sulur, near Coimbatore, as the runway at Cochin was limited. Throughout 1960, the Vampires fulfilled their function of converting pilots to jet fighter flying, these then proceeding to the UK and France for operational conversion training on the Hawker Sea Hawk and Bréguet Alizé respectively. At least another single seater FB Mk.52 joined the fleet, bringing up the total to five. More two seaters also joined the fleet over the years, but were believed to have been phased out in 1976. All the aircraft received IN series tail numbers. There were some accidents - at least three Vampire T-55s were lost in 1967, 1970 and 1976. One FB Mk.52 variant was lost in a ditching at sea.