Look Who it Was Random video

Supermarine Swift FR Mk 5 (1954)

3,214 views · Published 21 January 2016 · 2:25 · Indexed 28 October 2026

Channel: Public Enquiry · 2016 · News & Politics

Watch on YouTube

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. Type 535 VV119
VV119, the Type 535; Vickers-Armstrong
1st prototype WJ960
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.
- See more at: http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk/swift/history.php#sthash.z8lJlrpS.dpuf

More from this channel