AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 56 / 225

Plate 56 of 225 · Between the wars · Single-seat sporting and racing monoplane

Comper Swift

Comper Swift (1932), painted as G-ACTF ‘Scarlet Angel’, the Shuttleworth Collection’s Comper Swift, built at Hooton Park in 1932 as VT-ADO for Alban Ali in Assam, raced in the 1933 Viceroy’s Cup at Delhi and flying from Old Warden since its restoration after 1996: Nicholas Comper’s single-seat sporting and racing parasol monoplane of 24 ft span, with a wooden plywood-and-fabric fuselage, a strut-braced wing set above it with a notch over the cockpit, spatted wheels and an uncowled seven-cylinder Pobjoy radial, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid as displayed and flown at Old Warden: red fuselage, fin, rudder, spats, undercarriage and struts, a white cheat line with the blue and white Comper badge and white ‘G-ACTF’ beneath it on both sides, white edging to the fin and rudder, off-white wings and tailplane edged in red with a red centre section, ‘G-A’ and ‘CTF’ across the wings above and below, and a two-bladed propeller with cream blades and a black hub (shape from D. Rattle’s 1963 Model Aircraft plan, drawn from VT-ADO, and NACA’s three-view of the prototype, with the paint and markings following photographs of G-ACTF).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-ACTF ‘Scarlet Angel’, the Shuttleworth Collection’s Comper Swift, built at Hooton Park in 1932 as VT-ADO for Alban Ali in Assam, raced in the 1933 Viceroy’s Cup at Delhi and flying from Old Warden since its restoration after 1996: Nicholas Comper’s single-seat sporting and racing parasol monoplane of 24 ft span, with a wooden plywood-and-fabric fuselage, a strut-braced wing set above it with a notch over the cockpit, spatted wheels and an uncowled seven-cylinder Pobjoy radial, shown standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid as displayed and flown at Old Warden: red fuselage, fin, rudder, spats, undercarriage and struts, a white cheat line with the blue and white Comper badge and white ‘G-ACTF’ beneath it on both sides, white edging to the fin and rudder, off-white wings and tailplane edged in red with a red centre section, ‘G-A’ and ‘CTF’ across the wings above and below, and a two-bladed propeller with cream blades and a black hub (shape from D. Rattle’s 1963 Model Aircraft plan, drawn from VT-ADO, and NACA’s three-view of the prototype, with the paint and markings following photographs of G-ACTF). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (647 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Comper Swift (1932) modelled here.

History

The Swift

Nicholas Comper was an RAF officer who, as an instructor at Cranwell in the 1920s, designed a series of small light aeroplanes for the Cranwell Light Aeroplane Club. In 1929 he left the service and set up the Comper Aircraft Company at Hooton Park, on the Wirral, to build his own designs, and its first was the C.L.A.7 Swift: a tiny single-seat sporting monoplane of 24 ft span, built of wood with plywood and fabric covering, with its strut-braced wing mounted above the fuselage and the cockpit set behind it.

The prototype, G-AARX, flew at Hooton Park in 1930 with a 40 hp ABC Scorpion, and a few early aircraft had the 50 hp Salmson radial. The production engine was the 75 hp Pobjoy R, a compact seven-cylinder geared radial, which gave this very light aeroplane a top speed of about 140 mph. Swifts were sold to private owners in Britain and exported to many countries, including Argentina, India and Australia, and the last three were built with de Havilland Gipsy engines for racing; one of them belonged to the Prince of Wales.

The Swift was made for racing and record flights. Swifts flew in every King’s Cup air race from 1930 to 1937, and in October 1931 C. A. Butler flew G-ABRE from England to Darwin in a record nine days, two hours and 29 minutes. Production ended in 1933 after about 45 had been built. Comper’s later designs sold in handfuls, and in 1934 the company was reorganised as Heston Aircraft. Comper himself died in 1939, at the age of 42.

This airframe

Comper Swift G-ACTF ‘Scarlet Angel’

G-ACTFThe airframe modelled

G-ACTF was built in 1932 and registered in India as VT-ADO for Alban Ali, a tea planter in Assam, who named it ‘Scarlet Angel’. In 1933 he flew it in the Viceroy’s air race at Delhi, where Richard Shuttleworth, then a director of the Comper company, also competed, and set the second fastest time at 124 mph. Ali then tried to fly it to England, but gave up after an engine failure at Abu Sueir in Egypt, and it was shipped home, rebuilt by George Errington and registered G-ACTF. It passed through several owners, raced again after the Second World War, and was bought by the Shuttleworth Collection in 1996, restored and returned to its 1933 colours; it is flown at Old Warden in calm weather. The model shows it as photographed there, standing tail-down on its wheels and tail skid: red fuselage, fin, rudder, spats, undercarriage and struts, a white cheat line with the blue and white Comper badge and white ‘G-ACTF’ beneath it on both sides, white edging to the fin and rudder, off-white wings and tailplane edged in red with a red centre section, ‘G-A’ and ‘CTF’ across the wings above and below, and a propeller with cream blades and a black hub. The shape follows D. Rattle’s 1963 plan in Model Aircraft, drawn from VT-ADO itself, and NACA’s three-view of the prototype, with the paint and markings taken from photographs of G-ACTF.

See it at The Shuttleworth Collection

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Swift in 2 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 225 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.