Le de Havilland Vampire, aussi connu sous la dénomination DH.100, est le second avion à réaction militaire construit par le Royaume-Uni, avec la société de Havilland. Mis en service juste après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, il présente la particularité d'être équipé d'un fuselage arrière bipoutre. C'est le premier avion à réaction à avoir traversé l'océan Atlantique, et le premier avion à réaction capable d'opérer depuis un porte-avions. Plus de 4 500 exemplaires ont été construits, dont une partie sous licence, et utilisés par environ 25 pays différents. La Suisse le teste dès 1946, suit alors une commande de 75 appareils en 1949 complétée par la fabrication sous licence de 100 appareils. Acquis à l’origine comme chasseur, il est engagé jusqu’en 1970 comme chasseur et avion d’attaque au sol. Il est ensuite utilisé comme avion école et avion cible pour la DCA. Les derniers vols militaires ont lieu fin 1990, un bon nombre sont alors vendus aux enchères et certains volent encore dans divers pays.
Le Vampire DH-100 a subi deux modernisations importantes : la première en 1960 par l’installation d’un siège éjectable et d’une instrumentation modernisée (horizon artificiel et gyrocompas). La deuxième en 1980 par l’ajout d’un équipement radio UHF et un transpondeur (IFF), ce qui nécessita l’allongement du nez qui devint pointu semblable à celui du DH-112 Venom de l’époque. Les années 1960 furent aussi pour les forces aériennes suisses le début de la pratique du vol sans visibilité (IFR). Les stations goniométriques existantes furent complétées par des installations radar d’approche (GCA) et un système très original de radiophares parlants omnidirectionnels (NAFU). Nous avons l’intention de reproduire le fonctionnement de ce système et mettre ainsi à disposition de nos Vampires des moyens de vol et d’atterrissage sans visibilité lors d’un prochain « update » qui nous l’espérons permettra aussi l’engagement de l’armement tel que réalisé dans la version pour P3D.
Notes
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This de Havilland Vampire DH-100 required a lot of effort from its designers, everything has been faithfully reproduced as close as possible to the aircraft's flight parameters. The weapon system is fully functional but unfortunately not on the MSFS version for reasons beyond the control of its designers. However, for shooting enthusiasts, the P3Dv5 and v4.5 versions are fully functional and we can train on Swiss aviation shooting ranges such as the famous Axalp Ebenflue range which has also been modeled. We hope that in the future this possibility will be offered on MSFS as well.
It is very important to study the technical documentation provided by SwissMilsim and to respect the checklist of the aircraft. As everything has been reproduced as faithfully as possible, piloting mistakes are paid for in this simulation just as in reality. This plane is a superb plane and the true amateurs of this kind of machine will have a lot of pleasure to fly it.
Obviously a labour of love for the development team. Systems are well modelled and the plane flies well.
It is an early jet and while it has very pleasant handling characteristics, you need to read the documentation as the engine requires careful handling or you'll end up belching flames and smoke - though this can often be recovered with the extinguisher!
External model is good and reflects the small aircraft well. Sounds are good. Cockpit is effective and realistic - though with one or two points where the textures are a bit flat. The other challenge with the cockpits is the mix of languages on the instruments and the use of metric measurement. This accurately reflects the Swiss aircraft it is based on.
If you want a pleasant early jet and are happy to learn its (few) challenges, then this is a rewarding package that you will like.
Overall, highly recommended.
In the future...
A tweak or two to the cockpit would be nice.
As most of the hard work is done, it would be great to have a RAF FB.6 with English instrumentation.
I really love this aircraft. I have a very high end computer and I find the textures look great even in vr. What we really need is an update with some new liveries(RAF, RCAF even if the model is very Swiss) or a paint kit. This is such a fun little jet and really fun slowing for approach and getting the throttle control just right.
Nice plane but looks like FS9 inside with 2D textures which is unacceptable for MSFS2020 standards and for the price, Outside textures with poor painting.... flight model is still quite ok and pleasant to fly
One piece of information concerning the commentary on the texts in the cockpit of the Vampire: Switzerland being a quadrilingual country, the choice of inscriptions in the cockpit of military aircraft from the 1940-1990 period was delicate. The German-speaking majority did not want to impose itself too much! And as it was the time of the Second World War, making a distinction with the German neighbour was probably important. As a result, all military aircraft had French cockpit markings (with some exceptions on later instruments). The SwissMilSim Vampire being a faithful reproduction of the aircraft of the time, the texts are in French. As for completing with the original English versions with faithful instrumentations, SwissMilSim has done so in FSX and P3D versions with little sales success!
This is a great little historic aircraft and a nice model. Well worn interior, decent exterior, good set of features and excellent sound that is all too often lacking in far more expensive payware. It's old, cranky and not so fast, but has good pilot viz and fun to fly. Hopefully, folks will come out with some other liveries and more will give the Vampire a chance because it's worth it.
Those who criticise the looks have no idea what they are talking about while i'm not a pilot i have sat in a real vampire and the cockpit was just how it was in the real world, i also see no problems with the texturing and quality on the exterior model either, and while i have seen a few planes textured a little better they in no way deserve your crummy 1 star. The external textures are part of the livery and could be improved by other textures if they get made anyway.. That all being said i do have some issues, the documentation while good can be a little confusing in its wording i am guessing this maybe a language translation issue i would also for this price hoped it would come with a few different versions and some historical liveries like raf. After shutting down ambient sounds vanish which is a little weird and there is no sound difference between canopy open and closed The labels in the cockpit are German? while i hate to be arrogant most simmers speak English and English is the international language of aviation so would have been nice to have them in English .apart from those which are minor the plane is great to fly and the sound of the Goblin Engine is amazing. i found it pretty tricky to land getting the speed right i also found it very easy to spin and i haven't been able to recover from it maybe its me or maybe its unrecoverable i have no idea if the real one was so easy to spin also that engine blows up a lot so need to keep the throttle down out of the red all in all a good product and i hope a few fixes are made to make it even better
Those who criticise the appearance of the cockpit have certainly never sat in it. I have flown this plane, I can assure you that it is a very faithful historical reconstruction not only in appearance but also in performance, and not an avatar!
very disappointed for the price! if the plane is overall quite pleasant to fly, it is much less to look at! the interior is absolutely awful and very far from the standards and what we can expect for this price in MSFS2020. and the exterior looks like a drawing lacking realism. This addon looks like it was frozen more than 18 years ago in FS9