Date:	Friday 11 November 1955
Time:	day
Type:	de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB Mk 9
Owner/operator:	8 FTS RAF
Registration:	VV675
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	2 miles WSW of RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Swinderby, Lincolnshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
de Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.Mk.9 VV675: Delivered 20/4/49 to the RAF at 5 MU Kemble. Issued to De Havilland at Hatfield from from 10/11/49 trials and tests of "Modification 784" - the fitment of an heat exchanger/cockpit refrigeration device to cool the Vampire FB.Mk.5 cockpit for use in tropical environments. The device was code-named ACRE (Air Conditioning Refrigeration Equipment) and installed in the starboard wing root. First test flight with ACRE installed and operating on 28/2/50. To A&AEE Boscombe Down 17/4/50 for further "service release" trials. Also operated from Khartoum, Sudan, Habbaniya, Iraq and Muhurraq, Bahrein between 28/8/50 and 21/9/50 for "tropical trials" of the ACRE equipment in "hot and humid" conditions

One disadvantage of the ACRE equipment was that it was noisy, resulting in background noise that could muffle or drown out radio transmissions. Therefore VV675 was further retained at the A&AEE Handling Squadron in late 1950-early 1951 for "Modification 727", which experimented with new kinds of single and double-skinned canopies that insulated the pilot from heat, humidity, misting, noise (from the ACRE equipment) and cracking (caused by extremes of heat in certain overseas countries).

Returned to DeHavilland at Hatfield in June 1951 for further test flying aimed at further reductions of cabin noise and curing severe elevator overbalance at high mach numbers. These trials flights were completed in March 1953, at which time VV675 was sent back to the RAF at 19 MU St. Athan after having been upgraded to a Vampire FB.9

Then issued to operational service with the RAF, firstly with the RAF College at Cranwell, and then with 8 FTS at RAF Swinderby.

Written off (destroyed) 11/11/55: The aircraft stalled while in a loop, and the Vampire entered into a spin, from which it was not recovered. The aircraft came down two miles west south west of Swinderby, Lincolnshire, and the pilot was killed

Crew of Vampire VV675:
Flying Officer Maurice Charles Goldsmith RAF (pilot, aged 26)

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.175 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p.92)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.166
4. The History of the De Havilland Vampire By David Watkins
5. Britain’s Cold War Fighters By Tim McLelland
6. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VV
7. http://www.bcar.org.uk/1950s-incident-logs#1955
8. Vampire VV675 at Hatfield in 1952: https://www.mediastorehouse.com/mary-evans-prints-online/royal-aeronautical-society/photographic/havilland-vampire-fb5-vv675-hatfield-9893165.html
9. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/_DH100%20prodn%20list.txt
10. https://www.key.aero/comment/842073#comment-842073

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
02-Jun-2020 19:29	Dr. John Smith	Added
02-Jun-2020 20:20	BlB	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]