In an effort to identify modifications incorporated in to Vampire FB.9 R1382’s Junction Box 1, I went searching for a later revision of Air Diagram AD 4551. We already had issue 3; this came from Gina’s Vampire library. My general Google search came to nothing. Not really surprised!

I found a reference using NAA RecordSearch to ‘Vampire FB Mark 5 Electrical Installation’ by chance while I was having a look for something else on Vampires. The FB.5 and FB.9 are largely the same, the essential difference is that airconditioning (an ACRE 8 cold air unit) is fitted to the FB.9. I imagine that this file is in the Australian archives because the RAAF had a single Vampire FB.5, A78-3 (formerly RAF registration VV465).

So I ordered a digital copy in February; the order cost just under $40 including GST and took 12 days to process. That copy is available at the NAA here:

http://RecordSearch.naa.gov.au/scripts/AutoSearch.asp?Number=3398245&O=I

So it turns out that the file contains AD 4551 Iss. 3. The AD 4551 pages are scanned at a suitably high resolution and overall the result is very clean. I had a look through this just to make sure that Iss. 3 was Iss. 3! Apart from the NAA version not having some small hand mark-ups that our copy had, I didn’t see any edition differences.

When working through the Gun Firing circuit to convert this in to a wiring/routing diagram for Junction Box 1, I had trouble reading some pin IDs on our version. The hardcopy in Gina’s library is a bit tatty (some tears) and grimy; also in the original photographic repro process, the pages weren’t flat so some of the schematic is blurry.

Gun Firing circuit scanned from Gina’s version of AD 4551.

The GF circuit from the National Archives file.

So I took a look at the NAA version to see the pin ID and found a lot more than what I was expecting. There was in fact a significant difference in the actual circuit. The version we already had included Mod 3146. Looking at the circuit diagrams you should be able to see that they are fairly different. There may be other differences too, in other circuits. No idea yet if this was a relevant discovery for R1382, but at least the NAA file is now there for anybody who is interested or may find it useful!