SUPERMARINE SWIFT - REFERENCES

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SUPERMARINE SWIFT

REFERENCES

SUPERMARINE SWIFT
REFERENCES

[History] [Survivors & Leading Particulars] [Pictures] [References & Credits]
This page last updated on 18th March 2004

WEB SITES

The North East Aircraft Museum has this page on their Swift F.4 WK198.
Emmanuel Gustin's British military aircraft database includes entries for the Supermarine types 510, 517, 528, 535, 541 and the Swift itself.
Ian Bennett's site includes material on his hobby of gas turbine engines, including a page on model jet engines, shown off in a marvellous flying Swift model!

BOOKS & VIDEOS

The film Sound Barrier directed by David Lean published by the British Lion Film Corporation is a fictional account of a UK programme to break the sound barrier and includes a number of scenes where one of the Swift prototypes (VV119) stars as the fictional aircraft called Prometheus. If you ever see it on TV or in the video shop, worth a look for that alone. Also includes scenes showing an Anson, Attacker, Vampire and the very first Comet.
[Buy from Amazon UK]

Postwar Military Aircraft 7; Supermarine Attacker, Swift and Scimitar by Philip Birtles published by Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-2034-5. One of very few tomes on the Swift, and even then only devotes around a quarter of the book to it. A good number of photos and a good history of the development and service. Recommended.

Supermarine Aircraft since 1914 by C F Andrews and E B Morgan published by Putnam, ISBN 0 85177 800 3. Includes 19 pages on the Swift with good development history and a good number of black and white pictures. Recommended.
The British Fighter since 1912 by Francis K. Mason published by Putnam, ISBN 0-85177-852-6. An invaluable reference to British fighter aircraft, includes several pages on the development of the Swift and related aircraft, with black and white pictures and small plans diagram (reproduced here). Highly recommended, though not purely as a Swift reference.

MAGAZINES

The Aeroplane, 9th October 1953: Speed in the Desert - article on the briefly held Swift world speed record.
Aeroplane Monthly, January 1981: part 1 of Bill Gunston's Handley Page Victor article, including two pictures of HP.88 VX330, the Swift-based aircraft used for testing the Victor's wing design.
AIR International, May 1997 (Vol 52 No 5): Part 1 of From Spitfire to Swift - article on Supermarine aircraft. Part 1 included a colour picture of a Swift F.2 and some colour side views
AIR International, July 1997 (Vol 53 No 1): Part 2 of From Spitfire to Swift includes a good history of the Swift programme with some interesting pictures. Worth getting hold of.
FlyPast, May 1987: part 1 of Rise and Fall of the Swift - very good article on the Swift's development and use with a number of black and white pictures.
FlyPast, July 1987: part 2 of Rise and Fall of the Swift.
Scale Aircraft Modelling volume 19 number 5: has a review of the Magna Models 1/72 F.7 kit.
Scale Aviation Modeller April 1998 (Vol 4 No 4): Not Quite Right! (excellent article article by Richard Caruana with scale plans, colour profiles and a few monochrome photos), Aircraft Sketchpad (good drawings of the cockpit area) and Photo Album (detail pictures of WK281 mostly identical to ones on this site but with the addition of cockpit pictures - though WK281 is gutted in this area so the drawings are more useful).

CREDITS

This section would have been greatly the poorer without contributions from the following - so many thanks to (in alphabetical order):

Dave Betteridge, Brian Gardner, Nicolas Godfurnon, Hayden Hamilton, Rick Kent, Zvi Kreisler, Garry Lakin and Kim Raquet.

Thanks also to the following organisations:

FotoImages, Ministry of Defence (RAF), Southampton Hall of Aviation and the Tangmere Military Aviation Museum.

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