Supermarine Swift
History
While Hawker worked on the Sea Hawk and the Hunter, Supermarine were working on their type 510. This was to be basically an Attacker with swept wings. First flight was on the 29th of December 1948. Flown by M J Lithgow, it was the first British jet aircraft with swept wings and tailplane. Powered by the large Rolls Royce Nene engine (as used in the Vampire), this meant that the fuselage of the type 510 was larger than that of the Hunter. VV106, the first type 510, underwent various carrier trials. In the process it became the first swept-wing jet to both land and take-off from an aircraft carrier (the Americans, for once, were two years behind on this score). After these trials, and with the Admiralty losing interest, modifications were made to improve the aircraft's performance at high speeds and altitudes; greater stability was badly needed.
At the time, Handley Page were designing their Victor V-Bomber and decided to test their wing and tail design on a smaller aircraft. A type 510 fuselage (basically an Attacker fuselage with Swift wingroots, then designated type 521 by Supermarine) was bought from Supermarine and after a brief stay at General Aircraft, moved onto Blackburn where it was married to appropriate crescent-shaped wings and a T-tail, becoming known as the YB.2, or HP.88. Coded VX330, it actually flew too late to be of much use in the Victor programme and was lost in an accident on August 26th, 1951, killing HP pilot, Duggie Broomfield.
| Moving back to the Swift programme proper, the second of the real Swift ancestors was VV119, the type 528. Very soon after its first flight on the 27th of March 1950, it was modified to change the hated tailwheel undercarriage to a nosewheel arrangement (though the twin tailwheels were retained as bumpers). Other modifications were carried out; longer, pointed nose; kinked wing leading edge, larger fuselage diameter (to accommodate an afterburning tailpipe), greater fuel capacity and provision for four cannon in the wings. In this form the aircraft was known as the type 535, and this variation first flew on the 23rd of August 1950. |
VV119, the Type 535; Vickers-Armstrong |
WJ970, the first Swift prototype in April 1952; Ministry of Supply |
By this time the Air Ministry had become interested in the type 535 as a back-up plan for the Hunter programme; obviously someone was worried about Hawker's ability to produce a useable aircraft! The Korean war also concentrated ministry minds on the quickest possible production of a useable fighter. Supermarine were given the contract to produce 100 aircraft, to be named Swift. These were to be the type 541, and would use Rolls Royce AJ.65 Avon engines instead of the less powerful Nenes used previously. While the Avon, also to be used in the Hunter, was a much slimmer design than the Nene, it was considered too late to redesign the fuselage (and would no doubt have proved too expensive) so the wide fuselage remained. The armament provision was changed from four in the wings to two under the intakes. WJ960, the first true Swift prototype, flew on the 1st of August 1951. The second, WJ965, flew in July the next year but two forced landings caused a delay in the programme. |
| After the DH.110 disaster at Farnborough, more modifications were carried out on the Swift prototypes and they resumed flying in February 1953. In March that year the first production Swift F.1 flew. While the first of the F.1s were in production, armament was increased to four 30mm Aden cannon (after the Hunter had shown this to be possible), and the Swift F.2 was born. Unfortunately the extra room required for the extra ammunition was made by extending the wings forward at the fuselage join, and this caused a problem whereby the Swift could go into an abrupt pitch-up attitude, flipping onto its back in a matter of seconds. A number of fixes were made but none fully solved the problem until extra ballast was added to the nose of the aircraft. Obviously, this had the effect of making the aircraft rather less sprightly! |
WK247, the first F.3; MoD |
WK198 making a low pass over spectators in Libya, 1953 - note the black band on the nose for photographic reference purposes |
An F.3 variant was in the process of being produced, these being reheat-capable.
These, however, were destined never to be flown by the RAF, being used as instructional
airframes only. Meanwhile Supermarine continued working on a further improved variant,
still battling to fix the pitch-up problem, and produced the F.4 (Type 546) as a result; the
fix being a variable incidence tailplane which did indeed seem to cure the problem. The F.4, which had first flown in May 1953, soon made its name by breaking the world absolute speed record over Libya on 26th September 1953 with Mike Lithgow at the controls - 735 miles per hour, beating Neville Duke's record of 727 mph set using a Hunter F.3 three weeks earlier. The record only lasted a matter of days, though, before the American's Douglas Skyray pushed it up to over 753 miles per hour. |
| 56 squadron received their first Swift F.1s on the 13th of February 1954, though the aircraft had numerous restrictions placed upon them with regards to gun firing, top speed and service ceiling. In spite of this, the Swift still holds the honour of being the first swept-wing jet fighter into RAF service. Numerous accidents resulted in the grounding of all Swifts in late August. When F.2s replaced the F.1s a few days later (30th August), the restrictions were relaxed, but two aircraft were then lost in pitch-up accidents and the Swift fleet was once again grounded. By March the following year the RAF had had quite enough of the Swift and the order was given to withdraw them from service. While initial impressions had been favourable, with performance not far removed from the American's much more well-funded F-86 Sabre, the stability problems meant that the early marks of Swift was near-useless in service. |
Swift F.1s of 56 squadron in 1954; M. J. F. Bowyer |
Swift FR.5 prototype WK200; Flight |
While the problems of the F.2/3 had finally been fixed, and it must have delighted the Supermarine team to have beaten the Hawker Hunter's speed record, all was not well with the F.4. It turned out that the F.4's reheat could not be lit at high altitude, which, for an interceptor, was not a wonderful feature! Only nine were built, and production then switched to the FR.5 (type 549), a low-level reconaissance variant. |
| The RAF had decided that the Swift was a dead-end as a fighter, and with the Hunter now in widespread service in this role, were no longer interested in an additional fighter type. The FR.5 was fitted with a lengthened nose housing cameras and this was finally a useful aircraft, and as it operated at medium to low level, the high altitude reheat problem did not matter. From March 1956 2 squadron (and later 79 squadron) operated the FR.5 in Germany. |
Swift FR.5 plans; The British Fighter |
Swift F.7 with Fireflash AAMs; via Zvi Kreisler |
The Swift FR.5 actually did very well in the reconaissance role; in 1957 and 1959 Swifts actually won the NATO 'Royal Flush' reconaissance competition, conclusively beating off the best types other nations could offer, including the American's RF-84 Thunderflash. The punishing low-level reconaissance role proved to be no problem for the strong Swift airframe, and no fatigue problems were encountered. It even became a popular aircraft with crews, something that would have amazed the crews of earlier variants. FR.5s were eventually replaced by the Hunter FR.10. A proposed unarmed PR.6 variant (the type 550) never went anywhere because of the reheat at altitude problems, but fourteen F.7s were built; these being equipped with radar in an extended nose cone and Blue Sky (Fairey Fireflash) beam-riding air-to-air missiles. While not used in RAF squadron service, they provided valuable information to the Guided Weapon Development squadron and were the first RAF fighters to employ AAMs. |
| Often regarded as an abysmal failure, the Swift programme was from the start hampered by the problems of changing the engine from Nene to Avon and the lack of time to develop the aircraft. It was, after all, only ever intended as back-up in case the Hunter programme failed. However, operation of the Swift did at least give the RAF some experience of a heavier and more advanced aircraft than the Meteor and stood them in good stead for the adoption of ever more advanced aircraft such as the Lightning. Further production or development of the Swift did not happen due in large part to the end of the Korean war - the need for large numbers of fighters simply disappeared. In addition, the amount of money needed to develop the design fully could not be justified in the face of the ever-increasing success of the Hawker Hunter. |
Two FR.5s of 79 squadron accompanying two Hunters; MoD |
Leading Particulars
| Variant | Type 510 | Type 528 | Type 535 | Type 541 | F.1 | F.2 | F.3 | F.4 | FR.5 | F.7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First flight | 28 Dec 1948 | 27 Mar 1950 | 23 Aug 1950 | 1 Aug 1951 | 25 Aug 1952 | ? | ? | 27 May 1953 | 27 May 1955 | Apr 1956 |
| Crew | One | |||||||||
| Armament | None | Two 30mm cannon | Four 30mm cannon, 8 unguided rockets | None | As F.2 | As F.1 | Two Fairey Fireflash AAMs | |||
| Powerplant | Rolls-Royce Nene | Rolls-Royce AJ.65 Avon | 7,500 lb Rolls-Royce Avon RA7 | 7500 lb Rolls-Royce Avon RA7R | 7,175 lb (9,450 lb reheat) Rolls-Royce Avon 114 | 9,950 lb (reheat) Rolls-Royce Avon 116 | ||||
| Max. speed | ? | 660 mph | 709 mph | ? | ? | 713 mph | 700 mph | |||
| Service ceiling | ? | 45,500 ft | 39,000 ft | ? | ? | 45,800 ft | 41,600 ft | |||
| Range | ? | 730 miles | 493 miles | ? | ? | 630 miles | 864 miles | |||
| Empty weight | ? | 11,892 lb | 13,136 lb | ? | ? | 13,435 lb | 13,735 lb | |||
| Max. take off weight | ? | 15,800 lb | 19,764 lb | ? | ? | 21,673 lb | 21,400 lb | |||
| Wing span | ? | 32 ft 4 in | ? | ? | As F.2 | 35 ft | ||||
| Wing area | ? | 306 sq ft | 321 sq ft | ? | ? | 328 sq ft | 348 sq ft | |||
| Length | ? | 41 ft 5.5 in | ? | ? | 42 ft 3 in | 43 ft 9 in | ||||
| Height | ? | 12 ft 6 in | 12 ft 6 in* | 13 ft 6 in | ||||||
*Some F.4s appeared to have higher fins than others; does anybody have any further information on this?
Visitor Comments
32 people have commented on this page. This is comment section 1 of 4.
Graham Bell from Bishops Waltham,Hampshire
Posted at 3:46pm on Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
In the 1950`s I lived a couple or so miles from Chilbolton Airfield in Hampshire from where Vickers Armstrong operated a large number of R&D sorties and I recall spending many a happy hour watching the action and listening for the sonic booms.Happy days!.
Posted at 1525hrs Wednesday 20/02/2013
David Bailey from Lichtenfels
Posted at 12:41pm on Saturday, October 13th, 2012
As a technician on Station Flight RAF Valley in the late 1950s I was once involved with the 'turnround' of a very worn and tired looking Mk.5. (the fin was buckled!) that was on it's last flight to Aldergrove MU. I remember that replacing the starter cartridge was a hellish job. Following takeoff the pilot treated us to a memorable 'beatup' on full afterburner. Strangely I always had a soft spot for the shape of the Swift, a most aggressive and business like looking aircraft.
Brian Allen from Canterbury, Kent
Posted at 1:21pm on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012
At RAF Manston for two years, Aug.'56 to Aug.'58; working on F.I.D.O. maintenance for AMWD thro' Wm.Press & Sons ltd. USAF finceptrons 513 and 514, with 92nd F/B wing and 88th Air sea rescue also present there. USAF Display team 'The Aces' visited one day and "Beat Up" the drome. with their Sabres. Impressive , yes, but the following week the RAF's Black Diamonds came and showed them just how it should be done Those Hunters were beautiful and should have been developed way beyond their origi... read more »read more »
Raymond Jeffery from england devonshire SW
Posted at 4:20pm on Thursday, January 26th, 2012
Hi Kevin,I was a fitter on hunters and the Swift at RAF Jever 1957/59. many years have past by. I joined up with a engineering outfit at Exeter Internation Airport UK. in 2000 working on Hunters, some of which I had serviced at RAF Jever during my service. Hunter Flying Ltd operates 7 hunters. Look us up and see our hunters flying with the TEAM VIPER display 2011,plus many other venues in UK and abroard. The Hunter is still a crowd puller after 60yr. All of our jets are privatley owned.The business is in t... read more »read more »
Colin Cunliffe from culcheth warrington
Posted at 1:19pm on Saturday, January 21st, 2012
If there is anyone from Jever (1959-61), wants to chat my mob number is 07850764538 . Colin
Colin Cunliffe from culcheth warrington
Posted at 12:20pm on Saturday, January 21st, 2012
I was Sergeant i/c ground eqmnt section at RAF Jever 1959-61, and remember Pete Adair engaging the crash barrier,on a snowy day and in a Swift doing approx 150 knots, a record at the time. Eric Sharp gave me lots of info on this. The barriers were my responsibility. Kevin Fahey, I remember your Dad.
Bob Holden-Rushworth from Devizes wilts
Posted at 7:44pm on Friday, January 13th, 2012
I know this is a silly question , but would I be able to attend the 100th anniversary?
Perhaps I could represent my Dad; it would make me very proud?
Bob Holden-Rushworth from Devizes Wiltshire
Posted at 7:41pm on Friday, January 13th, 2012
For Eric Sharp: Eric was your wife called Liz and did you own a lovely singer car (a Gazelle I think)?
I remember you were very good friends with my parents; especially while we were at 5 Edert Strasse.
I met Tony Sumner at the end of 1982: he was co-pilot on the VC10 taking us from Brize to Asension.A real surprise and a really genuine man. Dad is ill now , in Canada.
Please email if you wish or call on 01380 721297.Also I was visited by a chap called Clive Seal last night ; his Dad worked on the aircra... read more »read more »
Revd Dr Alan C. Clifford from Norwich
Posted at 11:23am on Monday, December 5th, 2011
As a former Farnborough boy and ex-RAE Student apprentice,I recall the Swift with great pleasure. It was magnificently mercurial - poetry in motion!
Pat Wallace from Plymouth Devon
Posted at 3:44am on Sunday, November 6th, 2011
I remember our first Swifts arriving. Nice to look at,bloody awful to work on for us Engine fitters :(