Sir, - I noted with interest the reference to the de Havilland Vampire being in service with the Irish Air Corps in the article "Irish Military Facing Up To Changed Role" (The Irish Times, October 9th). This is incorrect.
Six de Havilland Vampire T.55s were in service with the Air Corps from 1956 to 1976 when the Aerospatiale CM.170-2 Magister replaced these aircraft. The first three Vampires were delivered in 1956 and a further three were delivered in 1961. Following the withdrawal from service, the Vampires were used for a short period as "instructional airframes" and some of these aircraft were then used by the Air Corps for fire-fighting training.
At present three of these aircraft are known to have survived being scrapped and remain completely intact. Two are in museums in France and Ireland with a third in a private collection in the US. None is airworthy. Two of the incomplete Vampires are held in storage in this country and one was scrapped. There is a Vampire at Casement Aerodrome at present, which it is intended to display in a proposed aviation museum there. This Vampire was presented by the RAF to the Air Corps in 1963 and was used for training Air Corps technicians until 1976. - Yours, etc., Patrick J. Cummins,
Comeragh Park, Lismore Heights, Waterford.