The Shepard, By Frederick Forsyth

[MIflyer]

Probably most of you will recall the illustrated short story by the noted author Frederick Forsyth. Here it is in animated form:

 

[Airframes]

Quite nicely done.
Seems there were a lot of Yorkshiremen in the RAF at that time !!

 

[MIflyer]

Frederick Forsyth served in the RAF. He flew Vampires.

 

[Airframes]

Yes, I know. I have the book at home somewhere, first read it in the 1970's.

 

[MIflyer]

Was the Vampire the only wooden jet fighter?

 

[SaparotRob]

Heinkel 162.

 

[Airframes]

I wooden know .............. coat's on !!

 

[vikingBerserker]

 

[MIflyer]

Yes, the He-162 was wood but then again it never quite got operational. I recall Bill Gunston pointing out that an NF version of the Vampire was essentially an NF Mossie forward fuselage grafted onto an Vampire.

 

[Micetro]

Was the Vampire the only wooden jet fighter?

The Vampire was not constructed in wood, the majority of the airframe was constructed in Dural and only the forward portion of the central pod was made from wood.

 

[MIflyer]

Yes, but that is still wood.

 

[Micetro]

Yes, but that is still wood.

A very small percentage of the airframe and one that isn't stressed particularly highly compared to the wings and tail section.

If you're going down that road then why not say that the Spit was made of wood (wingtip structure, outer wing rib parts and horizontal stabilizer parts) and the Hurri made of 'metal and canvas'?

 

[MIflyer]

My airplane is considered to be all metal but has a wood floor. Atlas space boosters used wooden parts right up until the early 1980's. None of that is structural parts, but the wooden center fuselage of the Vampire was structural.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice one!