Supermarine Swift

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Supermarine Swift
Supermarine Swift
Type: Single-engine fighter aircraft
Design country:

United KingdomUnited Kingdom United Kingdom

Manufacturer:

Super marine

First flight:

December 29, 1948

Commissioning:

1954

Production time:

1953-1957

Number of pieces:

160

The Supermarine Swift was a single-seat, single-engine intercept and reconnaissance aircraft of the British Royal Air Force (RAF) , built by Supermarine in the 1950s. After a lengthy development phase, the Swift was initially put into service as an interceptor. A series of accidents, however, marked the end of her existence as an interceptor, and she was subsequently used as a scout. In this version some of the shortcomings have been fixed.

history

development

In order not to fall behind in the field of high-speed aircraft, several tenders for aircraft were issued in Great Britain in 1946, on the basis of which the Supermarine company under chief designer Joseph Smith developed a corresponding fighter aircraft. The Swift was intended to replace the Gloster Meteor and had a number of forerunners. The first was the Type 510 based on the Supermarine Attacker , which differed from this one in that the wings and tail units were swept by 40 °. The British government ordered two prototypes, the first of which (VV106) was flown for the first time by Michael Lithgow in Boscombe Down on December 29, 1948 , and which was also used by aircraft carriers of the Royal Navy as part of the flight test program from November 1950 . The first take-off (with auxiliary missiles on the wings) and the first landing of the modified VV106 on HMS Illustrious took place on November 8, 1950 by Jock Elliot.

The first prototype modified by changes to the horizontal stabilizer to the type 517 (VV107) was used for flight tests until January 14, 1955 and is now stored in the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton. The second prototype (V119) was already called Type 528 . Compared to the first, it had a larger tail diameter to accommodate the installed afterburner of the engine, a longer nose, preparations for the later cannon armament as well as larger air inlets and larger tanks. It flew for the first time on March 27, 1950 and a few months later received a landing gear with a nose wheel instead of the previous tail wheel landing gear. The aircraft, now known as the Type 535 , flew for the first time on August 23, 1950. All of these machines had Rolls-Royce Nene 2 centrifugal compressor jet engines . The two pre-series Type 541 machines ordered by the Ministry of Supply in November 1950 against the backdrop of the Korean War had their maiden flight on August 1, 1951 (WJ960) and July 18, 1952 (WJ965). They were already equipped with the Rolls-Royce AJ65 axial jet engine or its successor, the Rolls-Royce Avon . The machines equipped with the latter had some changes to the nose, the cockpit canopy and the stern.

On February 26, 1953, a Swift reached supersonic speed for the first time in a jump flight. Due to the Korean War, there was an accelerated production of the series versions, which initially resulted in a restriction in flight operations. The first series machine produced in South Marston took off for the first time on August 25, 1952 and officially went into service on February 13, 1954 with No 56 Squadron in Waterbeach.

Use and end

Even before the start of the troop service, an F.4 held an absolute world speed record of 1,184 km / h for a short time on September 26, 1953 over the Libyan desert . The Swift was the last mass-produced British aircraft to hold this record.

The first squadron was from February 1954 equipped with the Swift F.1 56th Squadron in RAF Waterbeach , which operated their copies only 15 months and then received the Hawker Hunter . The numerous accidents mentioned in the first versions initially led to a temporary "grounding" and finally to the premature decommissioning of the two hunting versions. A number of retired machines were used in the British nuclear tests in South Australia in 1956. The most successful version, the combat reconnaissance aircraft FR.5, was only in service with RAF Germany from 1956 to early 1961 (see below) and was also replaced by the Hunter.

Only 197 of the 497 machines originally ordered were built. The initial problems were resolved at the end of the service life, but due to the positive experience with the Hunter , these improvements came too late for the company Supermarine. A handful of copies have been preserved for posterity and are mostly exhibited in various English museums.

Station locations in Germany

Versions

Swift F.1 (Type 541)
The F.1 was the RAF's first aircraft with swept wings and entered service with the 56th Squadron in 1954. 18 pieces of the version equipped with two 30-mm ADEN cannons and the Avon 109 engine were procured.
Swift F.2 (Type 541)
The F.2 had two additional ADEN cannons in the extended inner wing leading edge, the installation of which, however, led to handling problems (strong rear-up of the machine when turning at speeds above Mach 0.85), which required a number of other modifications (wings with sawtooth and boundary layer fences, Shifting the center of gravity forward due to ballast in the nose). 16 pieces were produced, which also flew in the 56th season.
Swift F.3 (Type 541)
The F.3 received the more powerful Avon 114 engine with an afterburner. 25 units were built, but they were never in operational use. They were only used for training purposes.
Type 545
planned and unrealized supersonic version.
Swift F.4 (Type 546)
The F.4, which was built in eight copies (four later converted to FR.5), had an adjustable tail unit that was supposed to solve the handling problems, which was also successful. One shortcoming of this version was that the afterburner could not be used at altitudes over 6,000 m (service ceiling over 10,000 m), which made it practically unusable as a fighter aircraft. That is why the machine was only used in this role for about a year. On September 26, 1953, Mike Lithgow set a new absolute world speed record with such a machine (WK198) in Tripoli with 1184 km / h, which only lasted a few months. The remainder of the order for 40 machines was converted to FR.5.
Swift T.8 (Type 547a)
Studies for a two-seater trainer variant
Swift Night-Fighter (Type 547b)
Studies for a two-seater night fighter variant.
Naval Swift F.4 (Type 548)
Planned carrier variant of the F.4. 20 copies were ordered in March 1952, but the order was canceled again at the end of the same year.
Swift FR.5 (Type 549)
The first reconnaissance version was the FR.5, 32 of which were converted F.4s. The remaining 56 pieces were new buildings. The nose was extended to accommodate the three Vinten F95 cameras, which led to further structural changes compared to the hunter versions. For defense purposes, this version had the two ADEN cannons that were already part of the equipment of the F.1. The first flight took place on May 27, 1955. The machine was put into service in 1956 and then flew, among other things, for several years until 1961 with RAF Germany . The reconnaissance missions of the machines flown in the 2nd, 4th and 79th squadron were mainly carried out at low altitudes. The afterburner problem at high altitudes was thus avoided.
Swift PR.6 (Type 550)
The second reconnaissance version was the program of the unarmed photo scout PR.6, which was discontinued relatively quickly due to the afterburner issue.
Type 551

Name for an F.2 (WK199), which was allegedly converted with an Avon 105 engine.

Swift FR.7 (Type 552)
The last version was the F.7 / FR.7 combat reconnaissance aircraft, armed with the new Blu-Sky (later renamed Fairey Fireflash ) air-to-air missile. Of the version equipped with a new, more powerful Avon 116 , twelve pieces and one prototype were built, but these were only used for shooting tests with the missile prototypes. The first flight took place in August 1956.
Type 554
Planned trainer version of the Type 545, with RA.19R Avon, radar equipment, fully adjustable afterburner and missile devices under the wings. However, this version was not implemented.

Technical specifications

Parameter Data FR.5
length 12.88 m
span 9.85 m
height 3.8 m
Wing 45.06 m²
Empty weight 5,800 kg
Max. Takeoff weight 9,706 kg
Engine a Rolls Royce Avon 114 with 31.9 kN dry, 42 kN with afterburner
Top speed 1,147 km / h at sea level
Summit height 13,960 m
Range 1014 km (with additional tank under the hull)
Armament 2 × 30 mm ADEN guns
crew 1

See also

literature

  • Bill Gunston: Fighters of the Fifties (# 13) - Supermarine Swift. Airplane Monthly, March 1977, pp. 131ff.
  • Nigel Walpole: Swift Justice - The full story of the Supermarine Swift . Pen and Sword Aviation, 2004, ISBN 1-84415-070-4

Web links

Commons : Supermarine Swift  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c FlugRevue August 2011, pp. 84–87, Deep and Fast - Supermarine Swift.