Designer/builder John Svardala immigrated to Canada after World War 2. He settled in Wellandport, Ontario and flew for fun. In 1946, Svardala imported an X-1 airplane and it flew at Hawkesbury, Ontario during the 1979s.
Before September 1964, Svardala built the prototype Svardala Bullet, 2-seater, side-by-side, flying-boat.
Suspended Animation produced the 1978 Zodiac which was similar to the Seagull Aircraft Seahawk. The Zodiac was designed and manufactured originally by Suspended Animation, Concord, CA, USA by John Reisig in 1978 and later improved by Carlos T. Miralles in 1979. Suspended Animation started out as a dealership and evolved into Spectra Aircraft.
A single-seat autogyro (first flown 1972)
Brasil
Developed AC-4 Andorinha single-seat autogyro (first flown 1972) and M-1 Montalva two-seat autogyro (first flown 1985).
The Swift was a single-seat swept-wing fighter powered by a Rolls-Royce Avon axial-flow turbojet engine. During development the engine was changed from the Rolls-Royce Nene to the slimmer Avon. It was too late to change the fuselage, which was fatter than necessary. Flown for the first time in prototype form on 1 August 1951, the Swift appears to have proceeded fairly smoothly through its development period.
On 10 July 1952 the prototype established an international point-to-point record between London and Brussels, covering 320km in 18 minutes 3.3 seconds, representing a speed of 1,071.7km/h. Mike Lithgow piloted the prototype Swift F.Mk 4 to 1183.5 km/h (735,4 mph) over a 3 km course at Idris, Libya, of 24 September 1953. Subsequent runs were spoilt by a failed afterburner. This accomplishment was extremely short-lived, the record standing for just three days before it succumbed to a US Navy Douglas F4D-1 Skyray.
Record holding Swift WK198 was the third production Swift F.Mk 1 and was converted as the prototype F.Mk 4. This introduced a variable-incidence tailplane to counter pitch-up problems encountered with earlier machines.
Deliveries to the Royal Air Force got under way during February 1954, the first examples of the Swift F.Mk.1 being assigned to the Air Fighting Development Squadron for operational trials. Shortly after this the type began to enter operational service with No. 56 Squadron, but the pure fighter variant was destined to enjoy only a very brief career, those examples of the Swift F.Mk 1 and Swift F.Mk 2 which equipped No. 56 being retired in March of the following year, largely as a result of the type’s poor all-round qualities. Subsequently, most of the remaining Swift F.Mk 2 and Swift F.Mk 3 production examples were passed directly from storage to technical schools, where they served as instructional airframes.
The RAF received a total of about 60 Swift F.1s, F.2s and F.3s, with an Avon RA.7 turbojet engine and two 30mm Aden cannon; four Aden cannon and a new wing planform with compound leading-edge taper; and with an Avon RA.7R engine with afterburner and changes to the rear fuselage respectively. These versions were not used operationally.
The Swift F.4 had an all-moving tail of increased area which finally cured the Swift’s pitch-up problems, and an afterburning Rolls-Royce Avon.
Only the FR.5 was used for any length of time and was a fighter-reconnaissance aircraft with a longer nose to accommodate 3 F95 camera- 1 facing forward & 2 facing sideways. AG45 gun camera was also fitted.
Deliveries began in 1956. Sixty were flown by the RAF; one further aircraft ordered crashed on delivery and several others were not completed.
All production was stopped in February 1955 after the 176th production machine had been completed. The final 35 aircraft were converted to the tactical reconnaissance FR Mk.5, this serving with Nos 2 and 79 Squadrons from Gütersloh, West Germany. Introduced by No.2 Squadron during February 1956, the Swift FR.Mk 5 remained operational until early in 1961 when re-equipment with the Hunter FR.Mk 10 was completed. The only other noteworthy Swift derivative was the Swift F.Mk 7 which equipped the Guided Weapons Development Squadron at Valley during the late 1950s, being employed on trials work in connection with the Fairey Fireflash guided missile. Following a single prototype, 12 examples of the Swift F.Mk 7 were completed from F Mk 4s, and one of these remained in an airworthy state until about the mid-1960s, at one time taking part in a series of trials relating to braking efficiency on wet runways.
Despite more and more modifications, it was all too late. The performance of the aircraft had been so degraded by the constant increase in weight that its intended role as an interceptor could not be fulfilled. Reheat had to be employed for take off, climb and combat, which resulted in an endurance of but 25min and a combat radius of barely 50 miles, or virtually nil if a bad weather recovery was needed. Having been plagued with problems and incidents and being clearly unsuited for its intended role as a day fighter, the aircraft was withdrawn from use by 56 Sqn during March 1955, after barely a year of service. The squadron was re-equipped with the Hunter during the following May.
Only a relatively small number of the 175 or so that were eventually completed actually attaining operational service with the Royal Air Force.
Swift F.Mk.1
Engine: 1 x Avon RA.7 turbojet
Armament: two 30mm Aden cannon
Swift F.Mk 2
Engine: 1 x Avon RA.7 turbojet
Armament: four 30mm Aden cannon
Swift F.Mk 3
Engine: 1 x Avon RA.7 turbojet
Armament: four 30mm Aden cannon
Swift F.4
Engine: 1 x Rolls-Royce Avon RA.7R with afterburner.
Swift FR.5
Engine: 1 x 4287-kg (9,450-lb) afterburning thrust Rolls-Royce Avon Mk 114 turbojet
Maximum speed 1102 km/h (685 mph) at sea level
Initial climb rate 4468 m (14,660 ft) per minute
Service ceiling 13960 m (45,800 ft)
Range 1014 km (630 miles)
Empty weight 6094 kg (13,435 lb)
Maximum take-off 9831 kg (21,673 lb)
Wingspan 9.85 m (32 ft 4 in)
Length 12.90 m (42 ft 3.5 in)
Height 4.00 m (13 ft 2 in)
Wing area 30.44 sq.m (327.7 sq ft)
Armament: two 30-mm Aden cannon
Crew: 1
Swift F.Mk 7
Engine: 1 x Rolls-Royce Avon RA.7R with afterburner.
Three aircraft were ordered to Specification N.9/47 for a naval fighter, and, configurationally similar to the Type 505 apart from the undercarriage. In February 1950, the contract covering the third prototype was amended to introduce sweptback wings, and this, as the Type 525, became, in effect, the prototype of the Scimitar.
The Type 525 has an all moving tail with narrow chord elevators and a tail braking parachute in the streamlined fairing of the tailplane and fin. A V type arrester hook is housed in clamshell doors below the rear fuselage, and there is a fuel tank of 58 gal. capacity in the fuselage between the two jet pipes. The 525 has slotted ailerons, of a similar type to those of the Swift.
Very large flap area is provided for deck landing, wing flaps being of the chord increasing type with a slot effect, and extra area is gained by two additional hinged surfaces below the fuselage. The wing also has full span slats which are extended for slow speed control. Since the long stroke undercarriage with its large diameter wheels retracts into the fuselage forward of the flaps, fairing doors for the wheel wells are provided and close to preserve the airflow after the undercarriage is extended. The 525 also has fuselage -mounted air brake flaps hingeing forward just below the leading edge of the wing on the fuselage.
2 x RR Avon
During 1946, in response to a contract to build two prototypes of a single-seat high-speed fighter to Specification E.41/46, Supermarine combined sweptback wing and tail surfaces with what was essentially an Attacker fuselage to create the Type 510. This retained the Rolls-Royce Nene 2 engine and tailwheel undercarriage of the Attacker.
The first prototype was flown on 29 December 1948. No armament was fitted, but provision was made for four wing-mounted 20mm cannon. The second prototype, designated Type 528, flew in similar configuration on 27 March 1950, and, on 8 November of that year, the Type 510, fitted with an Attacker-style A-frame arrester hook, made a series of landings and take-offs from the carrier HMS Illustrious.
Later, the first aircraft (now redesignated Type 517) was fitted with a movable rear fuselage permitting the incidence of the integral tailplane to be varied. Meanwhile, the Type 528 was fitted with an afterburning version of the Nene, a lengthened nose and a tricycle undercarriage as the Type 535, flying in this form for the first time on 23 August 1950, and providing the basis for the development of the Swift. Four wing cannon were carried by the 535, but such positioning found no official favour.
The Type 535 proved sufficiently impressive for a 100-aircraft order to be planned if the same company’s Type 541 proved a failure.
Type 510
Max take-off weight: 5534 kg / 12200 lb
Wingspan: 9.66 m / 32 ft 8 in
Length: 11.61 m / 38 ft 1 in
Height: 2.68 m / 9 ft 10 in
Wing area: 25.36 sq.m / 272.97 sq ft
Max. speed: 1014 km/h / 630 mph
The Superrnarme Attacker prototype had been built to a 1944 specification. The single-seat jet fighter flew for the first time on July 27, 1946. The machine was flown by Supermarine’s test pilot, Mr Jeffrey Quill, from the A&AEE at Boscombe Down, where, as there is not at the firm’s aerodrome at High Post, there is a runway.
The prototype, T5409, was seen at the SBAC show at Radlett the following month.
Named Attacker, the aircraft uses a Rolls-Royce RB.41 (later Nene) centrifugal flow turbojet, a new fuselage and tail mounted on the laminar flow wings of the Spiteful with radiators removed.
The undercarriage was also taken from the Spiteful. The wing retained the Spiteful’s four cannon armament but the radiators for its Griffon piston engine were removed and replaced by fuel tanks.
The result was the Attacker F.Mk.1, a mediocre fighter whose main advantages were cheapness and easy handling at low level. This was put to use by adding bombs in the Attacker FB.Mk.1 version, and the Attacker FB.Mk.2 had powered ailerons and a stronger met¬al-framed canopy. The last of 145 of the three marks was delivered in 1953, also exported to Pakistan, and served until 1957.
Three prototypes were ordered in August 1944 but development was slower than anticipated due to delays in laminar flow wing research, with low speed handling problems proving difficult to solve. As the RAF had begun to lose interest in the aircraft, it was decided that the last two prototypes would be navalised.
The first prototype flew on 27 July 1946 and the second on 17 June 1947 (the name “Attacker” applied on the same day), this differing in having longer stroke undercarriage, smaller fin, enlarged tailplane, increased fuel capacity, arrester hook and an ejection seat. Folding wings would not appear until the production versions were built. By then, the RAF was no longer a prospective customer and the aircraft was ordered only tor the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm.
The first production Attacker F.1 flew on 5 May 1950 and operational service began in August 1951 with No 800 Squadron FAA. Subsequent versions were the FB.1 fighter-bomber with provision for underwing ordnance and the FB.2 which differed mainly in its Nene Mk.102 engine with a throttle acceleration control unit to prevent flameout if the throttle was opened quickly, such as when performing a go-around. The Attacker served with only two FAA front line squadrons and had been relegated to Volunteer Reserve units by 1954 and retired two years later.
The only export was to the Pakistan Air Force, which received 36 ‘denavalised’ aircraft between 1951 and 1953 for operation from land. These lacked the folding wings and arrester gear of the Royal Navy’s aircraft but were otherwise similar to the Attacker F.1.
Attacker F.Mk.1
Engine: 1 x Rolls-Royce “Nene 3”, 22.24kN
Max take-off weight: 5339 kg / 11771 lb
Empty weight: 3826 kg / 8435 lb
Wingspan: 11.25 m / 37 ft 11 in
Length: 11.43 m / 38 ft 6 in
Height: 3.02 m / 10 ft 11 in
Max. speed: 950 km/h / 590 mph
Ceiling: 13700 m / 44950 ft
Range: 950 km / 590 miles
Armament: 4 x 20mm cannon
Crew: 1
Attacker FB.Mk 2
Engine: one 2313-kg (5, 100-lb) thrust Rolls-Royce Nene Mk 102 turbojet
Maximum speed 950 km/h (590 mph) at sea level
Initial climb (light weight 5216 kg/1,500 lb) 1935 m (6,350 ft) per minute
Service ceiling (maximum weight) 11890 m (39,000 ft)
Range (with 1 137-litre/250-Imp gal belly tank) 1700 km (1,060 miles)
Empty weight 4495 kg (9,910 lb)
Maximum take-off 7938 kg (17,500 lb)
Span 11.26 m (36 ft 11 in)
Length 11.43 m (37 ft 6 in)
Height 3.03 m (9 ft 11 in)
Wing area 21 sq.m (226 sq ft)
Armament: four 20-mm Hispano Mk 5 cannon
Bombload: two 454-kg (1,000-lb) bombs or eight rockets
Responding to Admiralty interest in “undercarriage-less” aircraft suitable for operation from flexible decks on aircraft carriers, Supermarine designed the Type 505 single-seat fighter in 1945. Two Rolls-Royce AJ65 (later to be named Avon) turbojets were located side-by-side in a broad centre fuselage to provide a stable base for alighting on the “carpet” and a Vee configuration kept the tail surfaces clear of the jet efflux. An armament of twin 20mm cannon was planned and provision was made to provide for a fixed tricycle undercarriage for flight development and operation from shore bases. It was thus relatively simple to incorporate a retractable undercarriage in the design when Admiralty interest in the flexible deck concept waned in late 1947 and the fighter was modified as the more conventional Type 508.
Three aircraft were ordered to Specification N.9/47 for a naval fighter, and, configurationally similar to the Type 505 apart from the undercarriage, the first of these flew on 31 August 1951. The second (as the essentially similar Type 529) followed a year later, on 29 August 1952.
In February 1950, the contract covering the third prototype was amended to introduce sweptback wings, and this, as the Type 525, became, in effect, the prototype of the Scimitar. The Types 508 and 529 were each powered by a pair of 2948kg Avon RA3 engines and had provision for an armament of four 20mm cannon.
Type 529
Engines: 2 x 2948kg Avon RA3
Empty weight: 8373 kg / 18459 lb
Wingspan: 12.50 m / 41 ft 0 in
Length: 15.24 m / 50 ft 0 in
Height: 3.54 m / 12 ft 7 in
Wing area: 31.59 sq.m / 340.03 sq ft
Max. speed: 977 km/h / 607 mph
All Aero 