Airfix 04003 Supermarine Swift F.R. Mk5

The Supermarine Swift was a British jet fighter and reconnaissance fighter from the early days of the Cold War. The drive was provided by a single Rolls-Royce Avon engine. The flight of the prototype took place in 1951, and serial production continued in 1952-1956, ending with the production of 173 copies of this aircraft. It was armed with 2 or 4 30mm ADEN cannons and up to 908 kg of bombs or unguided missiles.

The Supermarine Swift was developed as one of the first post-war jet fighters manufactured in Great Britain. It was largely based on Supermarine Attacker solutions, but was powered by a completely new engine and had a completely different wing geometry. Work on the Swift fighter was initiated in the late 1940s, but sped up tremendously after the outbreak of the Korean War (1950-1953), which unfortunately had an impact on the overall value and quality of mass-produced machines. First of all, they had numerous technical problems, showed poor maneuverability at high speeds and high fuel consumption, which limited the operating radius. Several development versions of this aircraft were created. The first was the fighter F.Mk.1. The F.Mk.2 was also a fighter version, but it had reinforced on-board armament. A fighter-reconnaissance version was also created, designated as FR.Mk.5. In turn, the typical reconnaissance version, without weapons, was the PR.Mk.6. Supermarine Swift aircraft, due to poor performance and considerable technical problems, were quickly withdrawn from the line (until 1967) and replaced by the much more successful Hawker Hunter machines.