Supermarine Swift The Supermarine Swift was a British single - seat jet fighter of the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) , built by Supermarine during the 1950s . After a protracted development period , the Swift entered service as an interceptor , but , due to a spate of accidents , its service life was short . A photo reconnaissance variant resolved some of the Swift ' s teething problems . Design and development . The Swift evolved from a number of prototypes , the first being the Type 510 , a prototype jet fighter . It was based on the Supermarine Attacker , a straight - wing Fleet Air Arm jet with a tailwheel undercarriage , but had swept wings , first flying in 1948 , a year after the first navalised prototype Attacker had flown . The Type 510 became the first British aircraft to have both swept wings and a swept tailplane . The Type 510 also had the distinction of becoming the first swept - wing aircraft to take off and land from an aircraft carrier , during trials for the Royal Navy ' s ( RN ) Fleet Air Arm ( FAA ) . However , RN interest soon waned despite Supermarine ' s modifications to the aircraft to improve aspects of its performance . The second aircraft in the ancestral lineage that led to the Swift was the Type 528 , which first flew in March 1950 . Soon after its first flight , many modifications were made to its structure and it was then designated the Type 535 , making its first flight under this name in August 1950 . The final variant was the Type 541 , a pre - production model of the Swift for which the Air Ministry had placed an order of over one hundred as a fallback in case the Hawker Hunter programme failed . The Swift was also seen by the Ministry as a replacement for the Gloster Meteor in the role of air defence . The Type 541 replaced its predecessors ' Rolls - Royce Nene centrifugal flow turbojet engine with the axial - flow Rolls - Royce AJ . 65 turbojet engine and its successor Avon engines . The fuselage , which had been given a cross section suitable for the Nene engine , was not redesigned for the narrower AJ . 65 and Avon engines . Two Type 541s were produced , the first prototype making its maiden flight in 1951 and the second the following year . The Swift had been ordered into " super - priority " production , a policy created by Sir Winston Churchill who had become Prime Minister in 1951 at a time of particular tension between NATO and the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War ; the Korean War had begun in 1950 . The first production variant was a fighter designated the Swift F Mk 1 , of which 18 were eventually built . The first flight took place on 25 August 1952 and the F . 1 entered service with No . 56 Squadron RAF in February 1954 , becoming the RAF ' s first swept - wing aircraft . It was powered by a 7 , 500 lbf ( 33 . 4 kN ) - thrust Avon 109 engine and carried an armament of two 30 mm ADEN cannon . The second variant was the F Mk 2 , of which 16 were built . This was an F 1 with two extra ADENs . However , the addition of these cannons caused problems as the structural modifications required to house the increased ammunition load led to dangerous handling problems with the aircraft . Numerous further modifications were then required to resolve this issue . The third Swift variant was the F Mk 3 , with 25 being built and powered by an Avon 114 engine with reheat . It was never taken into operational service with the Royal Air Force and was used as an instructional airframe . The next variant was the F Mk . 4 , which included a variable incidence tailplane intended to correct the handling problems that the Swift suffered from . It did indeed fix the problem ; however , it was found that reheat could not actually be ignited at high altitude which added to the problems that the Swift variants suffered from . The next in the line , the FR Mk 5 , had a longer nose to accommodate a number of cameras to suit the reconnaissance role and had other modifications to its structure . The FR 5 also reverted to the F 1 ' s 2 ADEN armament . It first flew in 1955 and entered service the following year . It performed its reconnaissance mainly at low level , making the reheat problem at high altitude irrelevant . Two further variants were designed ; the PR Mk 6 was an unarmed photo reconnaissance variant . However , it was a short - lived program due to ever - present reheat problems . The last variant was the F Mk 7 and was the first Swift variant to be fitted with guided - missiles , being armed with the Fairey Fireflash air - to - air missile and was powered by a new Avon engine . Only fourteen were built and none ever entered service with the RAF , being relegated - along with its prototype missiles - to guided - missile trials duties . Operational history . Tragedy began to strike early in the career of the Swift with a number of accidents involving the F 1 and F 2 , one fatal . The F 1 was grounded in the August of the same year it had entered service while the F 2 , which had replaced the F 1 in August , was also soon grounded . All fighter variants of the Swift were withdrawn from service by the RAF , after a short time in service , to be replaced by the more capable Hawker Hunter . The FR . 5 was the last Swift variant to enter service with the RAF and was eventually replaced by the Hunter FR . 10 , leaving the RAF in 1961 . The FR 5 was deemed to be suitable for its role and was based with RAF Germany during the Cold War . The Swift never saw combat action with the RAF . It did break a number of speed records in its time ; in Libya , on 26 September 1953 , an F . 4 ( WK198 ) piloted by Commander Mike Lithgow broke the world absolute speed record , reaching a speed of 737 . 7 mph ( 1 , 187 km / h ) , though it was broken in turn just eight days later by the Douglas Skyray , a United States Navy ( USN ) fighter . The Swift has the distinction of being the last British production aircraft to hold this record ( the Fairey Delta 2 was experimental ) . Under two hundred Swifts were built from an order of 497 . A number of Swift airframes went to Australia for Operation Buffalo in 1956 , being placed at various distances from a detonating atomic bomb . By its last variant many of the problems that had plagued earlier Swifts were resolved but the programme was not continued . The Hunter , performing satisfactorily in the same roles , removed any requirement to persist with the Swift . Specifications ( Supermarine Swift FR Mk 5 ) . Data from except for engine and armament .