The Supermarine Swift is a British single-seat jet fighter aircraft that was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was developed and manufactured by Supermarine during the 1940s and 1950s. The Swift featured many of the new jet age innovations, such as a swept wing. On 26 September 1953, a Swift F.4 piloted by Commander Mike Lithgow broke the world absolute speed record, reaching a speed of 737.7 mph (1,187 km/h). After a protracted development period, the Swift entered service as an interceptor aircraft with the RAF in 1954. However, due to a spate of accidents incurred by the type, the Swift was grounded for a time, and had a relatively brief service life. The problems with the Swift led to a public scandal surrounding the development and performance of the aircraft, harming the reputations of the British government, the RAF, and the British aircraft industry. Ultimately, the less problematic Hawker Hunter assumed much of the role intended for the Swift and only half as many Swifts were manufactured as had once been intended. A later photo reconnaissance variant of the Swift had resolved some of the teething problems, but that proved to be too late for it to regain favour. An advanced derivative of the Swift that was to be capable of transonic speeds, the Supermarine 545, was also under development during the early 1950s. However, it was cancelled in 1955, principally due to the poor performance of the Swift. During 1945, the Second World War came to a close and a new post-war Labour government, headed by Clement Attlee, came to power in Britain. The incoming Attlee government's initial stance on defence was that no major conflict would occur for at least a decade, and thus there would be no need to develop or to procure any new aircraft until 1957. In accordance with that policy, aside from a small number of exceptions such as what would become the Hawker Sea Hawk for the Royal Navy, the majority of Specifications issued by the Air Ministry for fighter-sized aircraft during the late 1940s were restricted to research purposes. Aviation author Derek Wood refers to this policy as being: "a fatal error of judgement which was to cost Britain a complete generation of fighters and heavy bomber aircraft". In part, the Swift had its origins in the experimental fighter prototypes that had been developed. Specifically, a number of Supermarine-built prototypes had been ordered under Specification E.41/46, which had sought the production of an experimental fighter aircraft furnished with a swept wing. The first of those prototypes was designated as the Type 510, which was heavily based on the straight-wing Supermarine Attacker, an early jet aircraft which was procured by the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy. The principal difference from the Attacker was that it had been modified with a swept wing configuration. During 1948, the Type 510 had conducted its maiden flight, a year after the first navalised prototype Attacker had flown. That flight made it the first British aircraft to fly with both swept wings and a swept tailplane. In trials for the Fleet Air Arm, the Type 510 was also the first swept-wing aircraft to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier. During the late 1940s, in the face of the emerging Cold War, the RAF came to recognise that it would urgently require the development and procurement of fighters equipped with features such as swept wings. That need was felt to be so pressing that it was willing to accept interim fighter aircraft while more capable fighters were being developed. In 1950, with the outbreak of the Korean War, Britain's heavy involvement in that conflict led to a flurry of orders being placed. In particular, the RAF felt that a pair of proposed fighter aircraft from Hawker Aircraft and Supermarine were of great importance and, in the same year, ordered the proposed fighters "off the drawing board". The Supermarine design was designated as the Type 541, and was essentially an advanced development of the earlier Type 510 experimental aircraft. For more details of development, design, operational history and variants, click here.
