AHC: De Havilland Vampire - the British superfighter of WWII

So, in hindsight De Havilland Vampire was probably the best of first generation jets, and it was a beauty. It also had good range and fairly good armament. It also was a very adaptable aircraft with night fighter and carrier variants.

Could we have tweaks, with it could we get it into widescale service by 1943-1944, maybe even to US license production resulting it becoming the iconic Allied fighter of late war period? As Luftwaffe was toast anyway, the most significant effect would be slightly even more distorted kill ratio, and maybe slightly lower Kamikaze casualties. Of course the post-war jet evolution would be even faster.
 
Vampire didn't fly until September 1943 and even if ordered into production straight away it'll be at least a year before series production can begin in earnest. You might get a test squadron by the end of 1944 but no sooner. Even for that the Vampire has to be given super priority and have the full weight of the Commonwealth's aviation industry thrown at it to get it ready. Still film of Vampires rushed to France or Belgium in the wake of the Luftwaffe's offensive regaining air superiority from the 190's and 262's would burn itself into the public's memory no matter how few there actually were. You could also see one or two squadrons of Sea Vampires sent East with the British Pacific Fleet to gain experience with jets in combat conditions and the sight of them screaming after the Kamikazi's at Okinawa would also be burned in the publics memory.
 
Vampire didn't fly until September 1943 and even if ordered into production straight away it'll be at least a year before series production can begin in earnest. You might get a test squadron by the end of 1944 but no sooner. Even for that the Vampire has to be given super priority and have the full weight of the Commonwealth's aviation industry thrown at it to get it ready. Still film of Vampires rushed to France or Belgium in the wake of the Luftwaffe's offensive regaining air superiority from the 190's and 262's would burn itself into the public's memory no matter how few there actually were. You could also see one or two squadrons of Sea Vampires sent East with the British Pacific Fleet to gain experience with jets in combat conditions and the sight of them screaming after the Kamikazi's at Okinawa would also be burned in the publics memory.

So, the first priority is to speed up the process. The basic concept was ready in Spring 1941, so if it is given higher and clear priority it will be ready much sooner. Perhaps intelligence on German jets seems to implicate they will be in service sooner than expected, thus speeding up development work of jets? As the US enters the war the British efforts are turned into R&D of advanced concepts, as the US is more than capable of fulfilling any needs of basic piston engine fighters and bombers and the designs at hand (Mosquito, Spitfire, Lancaster et al) are more than able to fully utilize piston engine to the fullest.

As they're new technology, a two avenues of approach for a fighter are made, twin engine (Meteor) and one engine (Vampire). Prototype in late 1942, in service late 1943, large scale combat introduction in June 1944? US and carrier versions for 1945?
 
The plane is easy enough , its the engine that's the holdup. IIUC one key problem was when Whittle's work was given to the only other person who could understand it for peer review in 1926 he found a math error or two and dismissed Whittle on this basis. Whittle would have been a rival, so there is a personal competition aspect to this dismissal.

If Whittle had his math checked first his peer review would likely have been favourable and a prototype funded in the late 20s.

The rest writes itself.
 
As Riain posted, it's not the plane design so much as the engine. Get a reliable powerful jet engine that doesn't excessively guzzle fuel working a few years earlier and the aircraft designers will be in hog heaven.

The DH Vampire was a good looking airplane. de Havilland should have won awards for beauty.
 
British Intelligence gets its hands on a copy of this clip of the flight of the Heinkel 178 in 1939 and the RAF panics and gives jets the same priority as Radar. With all the money and resources now available Whittle and Halford are able to speed up development of their engines shaving nearly a year off the time required for both the Meteor and Vampire to fly.
 
Another option. De Havilland gets the contract for E.28/39 and produce the Spider Crab in 1941 which the shows enough promise that it is developed into the Vampire F1 in 1943 using Whittle's engines to begin with. Halford's Goblin engine is later fitted to the F3 in late 1944.
 
I read that in 1943 more people were working on the initial plans for the Comet airliner than were working on the Vampire. The way it was described the Vampire was almost a hobby for DH engineers. The airframe was almost comically simple with an engine ready to fly and plenty of money and engineers thrown at it I dont see why a mid 44 introduction to service cant be done. It desperately needed an ejector seat though which it didnt get till well after the war.
 
As Riain posted, it's not the plane design so much as the engine. Get a reliable powerful jet engine that doesn't excessively guzzle fuel working a few years earlier and the aircraft designers will be in hog heaven.
Have O. T. Falk & Partners be able to find the full amount of funding they had promised to Power Jets rather than the much smaller one they were able to in our timeline that eventually led to the deal lapsing and their shares being returned to the company. I don't recall the exact figures but IIRC the difference was rather large, the extra resources likely meaning that Whittle is able to advance at a faster pace.


De Havilland gets the contract for E.28/39 and produce the Spider Crab in 1941 which the shows enough promise that it is developed into the Vampire F1 in 1943 using Whittle's engines to begin with.
IIRC Gloster were chosen partly because they weren't really doing much at the time and partly due to Whittle having met the head of the company several years previously whilst going around aviation companies and getting on well with him. Not insurmountable challenges but complicating.
 
IIRC Gloster were chosen partly because they weren't really doing much at the time and partly due to Whittle having met the head of the company several years previously whilst going around aviation companies and getting on well with him. Not insurmountable challenges but complicating.
Gloster are told to concentrate on the planned operational type rather than the experimental aircraft to hopefully save time?
 
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