![]() When new, the Chipmunk came with a cartridge start system that used modified shotgun cartridges−I told you it was old technology−but almost every surviving Chippy has been retrofitted with an electric start after the cartridge system was found to overstress The cockpit is very 1940s−black on black, with a WWII RAF standard flight instrument layout and P-compass on the floor. Google the word ‘steampunk’ and you’ll get the idea. The cast brass fuel caps on the wings and ‘clockwork’ indicator gauges hark back to another age, looking like they were taken from a Victorian boat. Fuel is carried in two small wing tanks: just nine gallons per side, or twelve gallons per side for Canadian versions. The Chipmunk wing is the most modern part of the aircraft, all-metal (albeit fabric covered aft of the mainspar) with a tapering section and squared tips. After escaping from Poland, where he had previously designed some very nice fighters, chief designer ‘Jaki’ Jakimiuk’s first job with de Havilland during WWII was helping to develop the Mosquito. The rear of the fuselage and tail look virtually identical to the de Havilland Mosquito. ![]() In fact, a popular mod for Tiger Moths is to have a Chipmunk’s Gipsy Major retrofitted to them, increasing the power from 130hp to 145. The nose profile appears almost identical to the earlier de Havilland Tiger Moth−no surprise there then, considering the aircraft came from the same stable and both have Gipsy inverted four-cylinder engines. And yet despite its all-metal, stressed skin construction, it is most definitely a design from the first half of the twentieth, century rather than the second half. Some of the military colour schemes can be quite clunky but when stripped bare of adornment the aircraft’s lines are beautiful to behold. I don’t think I was appreciative enough of the Chippy ride.Īt first glance the Chipmunk is streamlined and ‘aerodynamic’. The following week I puked my way round a three-ship formation of Jet Provosts at RAF Cranwell. In the end a pilot from the BBMF took pity on me and flew me in a Chipmunk for 25 minutes. I stayed on at the squadron for nearly a week, hoping that another opportunity might come, but it didn’t. We started up, taxied out to the holding point… went tech again and taxied back. Round two was at RAF Conningsby later in the year. We started up, taxied out to the holding point, ‘went tech’−it means broke down−and then taxied back. My first detachment was to RAF Binbrook and I quickly found myself strapping into a Lightning. In the early 1980s when I was in the RAFVR University Air Squadron system, one of the opportunities for cadet pilots was to apply for ‘detachments’ to operational squadrons, gain experience of service life and hopefully get a ride. The BBMF’s Chipmunks are also used for transport, liaison and recce of new display sites. ![]() The RAF still operates two Chipmunks as part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) using them to train pilots going onto the Spitfire and, more specifically the Hurricane−an aircraft the Chipmunk is said to behave like in the circuit when loaded to the aft end of its C of G envelope. The Chipmunk was only in production from 1947 until 1956, during which time nearly 1,300 were built−some in Canada and under licence in Portugal, but mostly in Britain at Hatfield and Broughton. Forty years ago, the experience was mine, and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. ![]() From the 1950s until the 1990s, that first military aircraft would invariably have been a Chipmunk. It’s difficult to convey the sense of drama experienced by a young pilot trainee−having put on RAF-issue flying suit, parachute, boots and bone dome−to stride (or waddle) across the apron at a military airfield and climb into a military aircraft for the very first time, then sit in the cockpit looking across a wing bearing roundels. ![]() Ironically the Chipmunk was the platform for selection and basic training of British military aircrew for nearly fifty years after WWII, which is maybe why Adolf wanted a go in it. Formerly WD359, it was owned for many years by the founder of the Chipmunk club, Ralph Steiner and once flown by WWII fighter ace Adolf Galland. This year is the 75th birthday of the DHC-1 Chipmunk and to mark the occasion we decided to flight-test a particularly special example, G-BBMN. First flown in 1946, the charming Chipmunk outlasted more modern designs and continues to serve with the RAF as an indispensable tailwheel trainer for BBMF pilots ![]()
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