Classic British Flight Sim

Following on from my video earlier, I visited the Swiss Air Force Museum just outside Zürich today, where its damn cold outside and damn warm inside!


P-51 Mustang


Fiesler Storch


Morane D-3801J


EKW C-36


EKW C-36 undercarriage close-up


Junkers JU-52 on the apron. Note lots of snow and yet all taxiways and the runway appeared to be clear even though this place doesn't seem to see many (hardly any?) movements!


Me-109








Me-108


Storch again


Whittle engine. Small piece of trivia, I used to work at what was once the original Power Jets site at Whetstone near Leicester.


Licence-built A-S Mamba, one of four powering the N-20 Aiguillon indigenous fighter


DH-112 Venom


DH-100 Vampire


Even this Goblin engine was licence produced in Switzerland. Lots of British kit in this hall, but almost all of it made here in Switzerland


N-20 Aiguillon. This was cancelled by the Swiss government and they bought Hunters instead


Nose-mounted camera pod of a Mirage IIIRS


The tail of the Aiguillon. Some seriously strange looking nozzles!


Reconaissance variant of the Mirage (IIIRS)


Snecma Atar from the Mirage


The "hot end" of the Atar. The afterburner appears to be longer than the engine itself


Hunter


Hunters remained in service until 1994 in the ground attack role. Consequently there seemed to be a much wider and more modern array of weapons and ordnance around it than we would ever have had. I believe this could even carry sidewinders!


One such example is this AGM-65 Maverick


I'd never realised just how long the exhaust nozzle of the Hunter is (or conversely, just how short an Avon is)


FLORIDA (FLugsicherungs Operations Radar IDentifikation Alarm) control panel, alerting the Swiss to intruders in their airspace from 1965 until 2003


RR Avon from a Hunter


DH-115 Vampire trainer - for me, the most aesthetic of the Vampire/Venom family


A stripped down and varnished DH-115 fuselage, the plywood of the fuselage skin is about 12mm thick


An early Vampire cockpit


FFA P-16. Another cancelled Swiss fighter. The wings of this have some commonality with the original Learjet although sources differ as to whether they are physically common or whether simply the design concept is common


Maintenance "scene" with the Venom


Contrast and compare the wing planforms of the Venom and Vampire


Beech 18


Vampire


Aiguillon. I have doubts about how these intakes would have performed in a tight turn!


DH-115 Vampire


Some of you may remember my post from Axalp last year. This shows a map of the area with the airfield in the valley to the right of the picture and the arrows showing the various circuits to the ridge where the targets are placed


And a relief model of the same area. The Brienz lake is to the left and the small ridge where the targets are placed is more or less in the centre of hte image in the small valley. The taller ridge at the north side of the valley, running roughly from bottom left to top right is where the spectators stand


Looking down into the DH-115 cockpit


Several P-16s were built before this too was cancelled in favour of buying Hunters


A De Havilland Snow Vampire

Great pics Toby! Thanks very much for sharing them. Love that wooden model of the Venom.

Brian

Very interesting, thanks for posting those Toby.

Looks like a very good museum.

What a wonderful set of images of what looks like a great museum!

Thanks for sharing

JR

Very interesting pictures Toby and much nostalgia generated!

The early Vampire cockpit must actually be quite late as it seems to have a straight stick and an ejector seat...All the single seat vampires that we had were spade grip and non-bang seat (you had to roll to upside down and kick the stick forward to bale out).

Thanks for posting such a varied and unusual collection of aircraft

Perhaps it was actually from an FB.6 and not an F.1 as I had thought. I'd need to check the sign next to it again! The other possibility is that its a composite enough Vampire parts to fill a cockpit. I think I have a photo of the exterior too although I am not sure it would be possible to identify it from outside from just that section?

TobyV wrote:Perhaps it was actually from an FB.6 and not an F.1 as I had thought. I'd need to check the sign next to it again! The other possibility is that its a composite enough Vampire parts to fill a cockpit. I think I have a photo of the exterior too although I am not sure it would be possible to identify it from outside from just that section?

I flew the Vampire FB5 and FB9 (the only difference with the FB9 is Cockpit Cooling Mod 905)...Neither had a bang seat or straight stick.

Interesting. Perhaps its even a Venom then? I have a photo of the exterior, but with it just being a forward fuselage only, I'm not quite sure how to tell. Can email you the full size versions if you are interested?

Beautiful to see the wonderfully preserved aircraft. Shame that the Swiss made birds never got to get their wings. Love the wood models and the DH-115 wooden structure.

Great photos Toby. Its always good to see new collections of aircraft from around the world.

Is it me, or does the N-20 Aiguillon in that first photo slightly resemble the Vought F7U Cutlass ? I think its the nose and canopy that does it.