Built at de Havilland’s Broughton factory in January 1956, this was the Vampire imported into Japan for evaluation in August of that year. Already withdrawn from active operations in January 1960, the aircraft was used for PR/recruitment purposes at SDF exhibitions, which included being parked next to a roller coaster at an event held at Tokyo’s Futako-Tamagawa Park in March 1963, then passed to the 1st Technical School at Hamamatsu as an instructional airframe. It was then stored and occasionally given a public airing at Hamamatsu from the 1970s before being placed on permanent display at the JASDF Air Park at that base in March 2000.
I think I've been too harsh with Airfix recently, I've had a few problems with their newer kits but this one was the 'gem' I'd been told it was, it goes together really well, cleverly engineered so much so the cockpit, compressor face and intake trunking and the whole empennage and boom assembly has no glue to hold them in place! they are just pinched in by the the fuselage assembly, so apart from some of the instructions being a little confusing and slightly heavy panel lines I'd recommend this kit to anyone!
Miko (Next. . . . !)
I think I've been too harsh with Airfix recently, I've had a few problems with their newer kits but this one was the 'gem' I'd been told it was, it goes together really well, cleverly engineered so much so the cockpit, compressor face and intake trunking and the whole empennage and boom assembly has no glue to hold them in place! they are just pinched in by the the fuselage assembly, so apart from some of the instructions being a little confusing and slightly heavy panel lines I'd recommend this kit to anyone!
Miko (Next. . . . !)
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