But does it live up to its billing?

The Test
As a longtime reviewer and reporter for Air Action Weekly, I jumped at the chance to get behind the stick of Sanderson Machine Corporation's premier combat craft.

After a tour of the main factory floor—conducted by none other than company president Matthew Sanderson himself—I was escorted to the "test facility" (little more than a long, flat field on the outskirts of Tulsa).

The plane itself was a stock factory model, built for combat (rather than one of the cargo or reconnaissance birds that are the most common variants). With a full load of rockets, bombs and ammunition, I was struck by just how fierce the FB14 looks.

Powerful But Slow
The Vampire is one of the heaviest fighters currently available, weighing in at just shy of 13,250 pounds. As a result, the Vampire is also one of the slowest, least agile combat craft that is still designated a "fighter." During take-off, the plane made full use of the runway; I wouldn't recommend the FB14 as a fast-response fighter.

Despite handling that could best be termed "sluggish" and "cumbersome," the FB14 showed remarkable steadiness and ease of control when making strafing attacks and bombing runs, using it's array of weaponry to great effect.

The Vampire's twin Pratt and Whitney P12 engines deliver a great deal of power (1,590 horsepower), with minimal fuel consumption. The FB14's flight ceiling is also impressive: the Vampire can attain a height of 25,000 feet.

High Maintenance
The FB14 earned its nickname because of the high demand she places on maintenance crews. The tail and engine assembly—highly effective and stable, but extremely complex—requires almost constant care. Failure to keep control surfaces and engines cleaned and tuned up almost always cause a mechanical failure...and a crash.

Gunslinger
The heart of the Vampire is her armament, some of the heaviest firepower available: a pair each of Carver .40-, .60- and .70-caliber machine guns. The flight test consisted of three strafing runs against fixed ground targets, as well as some "snap-shot" practice against some point-defense balloons.

In three passes, the ground targets were completely obliterated, showcasing the Vampire's robust and stable handling in low-level attacks. Against the point-defense balloons, however, the Vampire did not fare so well. I managed to tag the first couple balloons with rockets, but missed the third, since the plane's turning radius was too wide.

Evaluation
The Vampire handled reasonably well, though her mediocre agility can prove fatal in a dogfight. For long-range patrols, high-altitude reconnaissance, bombing missions, or escort duty, the Sanderson FB14 is an excellent aircraft, well deserving of its reputation as a fearsome combat aircraft.

Lance "Lightning" Hopkins is a longtime contributor to AAW. He won the prestigious Hughes Award for his coverage of the Plateau Wars of 1936.