The Swift Aircraft Swift is a single engine, conventional
light aircraft, seating two in
side-by-side configuration
Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction.
The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...
. It is being developed in the
UK but has yet to fly.
Design and development
The Swift is mostly built from
composite materials
A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...
; flying surfaces and the
fuselage
The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...
are formed from composite sandwiches and the wing and tailplane have
carbon fibre spars. It has a
low wing of trapezoidal plan with slightly upturned tips, fitted with
Frise aileron
An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around t ...
s and
slotted flaps. The rear surfaces are also trapezoidal. There is a
trim tab in the
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
and a ground adjustable tab on the
rudder
A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...
.
[
The cockpit has a fixed windscreen and rearward-sliding canopy and is equipped with dual controls. There is a baggage space behind the side-by-side seats. The Swift has a fixed, ]tricycle undercarriage
Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle ge ...
with the mainwheels on fuselage mounted, spring steel, cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
legs. The mainwheels have disc brakes and the nosewheel is steerable. The Swift is designed to accept a range of Textron Lycoming
Lycoming Engines is a major American manufacturer of aircraft engines. With a factory in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lycoming produces a line of horizontally opposed, air-cooled, four, six and eight-cylinder engines including the only FAA-certifi ...
horizontally opposed
A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, wh ...
engines in the power range 119-194 kW (160-260 hp), driving a three-bladed propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
.[
The Swift program was announced in May 2009. In 2015 Swift Technology Group announced a "multi million pound investment" supporting development of the aircraft and other products, and exhibited a static display at AeroExpo UK.]
Variants
;Swift II: Intended to be type certified to EASA CS-23
;Swift VLA: Intended to be certified to EASA CS-VLA in kit and factory-complete flyaway versions
Specifications (Swift II)
References
{{reflist, refs=
[{{cite book , title= Jane's All the World's Aircraft 2011-12, last= Jackson , first= Paul , edition= , year=2011, publisher=IHS Jane's, location= Coulsdon, Surrey, isbn=978-0-7106-2955-5 , pages=596]
External links
Swift Aircraft
Proposed aircraft of the United Kingdom