Comper Swift

Swift
Role Single-seat sporting aircraft
Manufacturer Comper Aircraft Company Ltd
Designer Nicholas Comper
First flight 1930
Produced 1930-1933
Number built 45


The Comper C.L.A.7 Swift is a British 1930s single-seat sporting aircraft produced by Comper Aircraft Company Ltd of Hooton Park, Cheshire.

Design and development

In March 1929 Flight Lieutenant Nicholas Comper left the Royal Air Force and formed the Comper Aircraft Company to build an aircraft he had designed, the Comper Swift. He had previously designed and flown three aircraft for the Cranwell Light Aeroplane Club: the C.L.A.2, C.L.A.3 and C.L.A.4. The prototype Swift (registered G-AARX) first flew at Hooton Park in January 1930.[1] The aircraft was a small single-seat, braced high-wing monoplane constructed of fabric-covered spruce wood frames.[2] The first Swift was powered by a 40 hp (30 kW) ABC Scorpion piston engine. After successful tests, seven more aircraft were built in 1930, powered by a 50 hp Salmson A.D.9 radial engine. Trials with Pobjoy P radial engine for use in air racing resulted in all the subsequent aircraft being powered by the Pobjoy R. The last three factory-built aircraft (sometimes called the Gipsy Swift) were fitted with de Havilland Gipsy engines - two with 120 hp (89 kW) Gipsy Major III, and one with a 130 hp (97 kW) Gipsy Major. One of the Gipsy Swifts, owned by the then-Prince of Wales and future King Edward VIII, won second place in the 1932 King's Cup Race while being flown by his personal pilot.[3] Postwar, surviving Swifts continued to compete successfully in UK air races into the mid-1950s.

Survivors

A new plane, registered G-ECTF, and built according to the original plans, with a Pobjoy Cataract engine, is expected to fly in 2015.[8]

Comper Swift, G-ACTF.

Operators

 Spain

Specifications (C.L.A.7 Swift)

Data from Jackson (1974)[10]

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Related development


Related lists

Notes

  1. Meaden (2003)
  2. 1 2 3 Riding (2003)
  3. "A Royal aviator", Flight International magazine, 15 June 1972, p.878 (online archive version) retrieved 10 August 2012
  4. 1 2 3 4 Meaden (Autumn 2004)
  5. 1 2 Meaden (Winter 2004)
  6. Australian Civil Aircraft Register
  7. "Old Timers". Pilot: 46. January 2012.
  8. http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/561221-comper-swift-g-ectf-almost-ready.html
  9. "Aircraft that took part in the Spanish Civil War". Retrieved 2012-04-14.
  10. Jackson (1974)

References

External links

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