We are at the de Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre standing between the twin booms of a Vampire T11, a wide bodied, two seater training aircraft. This one belonged to the Royal Airforce and similar to those flown at RAF Flying Training School, Swinderby, where I spent most of my National Service in 1959 and 60. To its starboard is a more conventional, single seater Vampire fighter which, from its markings, must have beloged to the Swiss Army-Airforce. There is another Swiss Vampire in the hangar to the front and I know of one other. It stands (or at least stood) on the roof of the main terminal of Fankfurt Airport. The Vampire just missed seeing action in the Second World War. It wasn't quite ready till after VE Day, 1945. It wasn't the first British jet fighter. That honour goes to the Glouster Meteor, which just beat it into service by a few months. Both aircraft ended up as trainers and were used into the 1960s. At least eight Vampires went to the Royal Indian Airforce, or was it just the Indian Airforce by the mid-1960s.