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The de Havilland DH 112 Venom was a British postwar single-engined jet aircraft developed from the de Havilland Vampire.〔Gunston 1981, p. 52.〕 It served with the Royal Air Force as a single-seat fighter-bomber and two-seat night fighter. The Venom was an interim between the first generation of British jet fighters – straight-wing aircraft powered by centrifugal flow engines such as the Gloster Meteor and the Vampire and later swept wing, axial flow-engined designs such as the Hawker Hunter and de Havilland Sea Vixen. The Venom was successfully exported, and saw service with Iraq, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland and Venezuela. The Sea Venom was a navalised version for carrier operation. ==Design and development== The Venom's lineage lay in the aircraft it was intended to replace, the Vampire, which had been the second jet aircraft to enter service with the RAF.〔The Gloster Meteor was the first jet aircraft to enter service with the RAF, and saw service during the Second World War.〕 In 1948, de Havilland proposed a development of the Vampire with a thin wing and more powerful engine as a high altitude fighter, the Vampire FB 8. In most respects, the Venom was quite similar to the Vampire, sharing the distinctive twin-boom tail and composite wood/metal structure, although the Venom differed in parts. The idea was adopted and a Vampire F 1 was converted by fitting the new de Havilland Ghost engine, which was more powerful than the de Havilland Goblin used on the Vampire. As the DH 112, the Venom filled an Air Ministry requirement for a fast, manoeuvrable and capable fighter-bomber to replace its progenitor. The first Venom prototype flew on 2 September 1949,〔Birtles ''Air Pictorial'' July 1971, p.242.〕 and the first Venom variant, a single-seat fighter-bomber, entered service in 1952 as the FB 1.〔Birtles ''Air Pictorial'' July 1971, p.243.〕 A total of 375 of these would be built. It was armed with four 20 mm (.79 in) Hispano Mk V autocannons in the nose and could carry either two 1,000 lb (approx 450 kg) bombs〔1,000 lb was the nominal weight of these Medium Capacity bombs〕 or eight RP-3 60 lb (27 kg) air-to-ground rocket projectiles – the heavier bombs being an improvement over the Vampire FB 5. It was powered by a single 4,850 lbf (21.6 kN) thrust Ghost 48 Mk.1 engine. The next Venom, the NF.2 night fighter, first flew on 22 August 1950 and entered service in 1953, having been delayed after some minor problems with the type.〔Birtles ''Air Pictorial'' August 1971, pp. 281–282.〕 To accommodate the necessary two man crew (pilot and navigator/radar operator) it was structurally different – the two crew were positioned side-by-side and an airborne interception radar was fitted in the nose. It replaced the Vampire NF 10, and was followed by NF 3, which was the last night fighter variant of the Venom, first flying in 1953 and entering service in 1955. The night fighter Venoms had a relatively brief career with the Royal Air Force, having been only an interim solution, and was withdrawn in 1957 and replaced by the Gloster Javelin twin-engined all-weather fighter. The final Venom for the RAF was the single-seat FB.4 which first flew on 29 December 1953.〔Birtles ''Air Pictorial'' July 1971, p.244.〕 It entered service in 1955 and 250 were built. It was powered by a single 4,850 lbf (21.6 kN) thrust de Havilland Ghost 103 turbojet engine. It also received an ejector seat and some modifications to its structure along with powered ailerons.〔The British Fighter since 1912 pg.363.〕〔Aircraft of the Royal Air Force since 1918 pg.235 - 236.〕〔Pilot's Notes Venom FB Mk 4: 2nd edition A.P.4335D pg.9 and 37.〕 Main production of the Venom was by de Havilland, augmented by numbers of FB.1, FB.4 and FB.51 built by Fairey Aviation at Manchester (Ringway) Airport 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「De Havilland Venom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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