Potential Swift Squadrons

[The Wooksta!]

I may well go with Treble One and avoid controversy.  Although likely overall NMF...


edited due to alcoholism. Hic!

[Captain Canada]

NMF would look awesome ! Were there any in service like that ? When is the kit due out ?

[TallEng]

Hi tc2324

No need for apology, the reply is in well before I'll get the chance to build this kit! 

Edging towards 63 squadron for something a little different, the squadron leaders aircraft might justify a coloured tail! 

Much like this? http://modelingmadness.com/review/korean/mhunt.htm
Looks like 63's Boss beat you to it
And just to put the cat among the pigeons, I thought 56 Sqn shared Waterbeach with 92Sqn? At least they did when they both had Sabres.

Regards
Keith

[Daryl J.]

Hope to put a US Army version in the air over Cuba.   
And a Canadian one as well.  Just who they would survey, however, remains to be determined.  The North Sea perchance. 

[XV107]

You can get parliamentary papers online via a subscription service - which I have access to via work. The 1953 paper and supporting document don't mention squadron numbers.

That sort of detail is usually  reserved for  internal Air Staff documentation as debates over which squadrons will re-equip and which will reform on a new aircraft type are played out, often with a need to transfer squadron numberplates between commands (for instance, had there been a desire to make, say, 112 Squadron a Swift unit in Fighter Command, then it would have needed AOC-in-C RAF Germany to have formally transferred the numberplate to the control of AOC-in-C Fighter Command; a real example is the transfer of the 10 Squadron numberplate from Bomber Command to Transport Command to allow the unit to reform on the VC10).

[Knightflyer]

Thanks XV107, that add to the background knowledge. Funny you mentioning 112 squadron, I have a whiffing plan to return them to the desert, better get my AOCs talking to each other

TallEng - I'd forgotten that tail, it's a little beyond what I'm planning, I'm not sure if I could replicate that pattern, even if the checks weren't 'sloped' at the diagonal. The tail I am planning will be more like this

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/25229-last-year/

The seventh aircraft down (The Hawk!) but the rest of the air-frame in 1950s/60s silver

also - I don't think 56 squadron ever flew Sabres? At least not in our universe?!

[tc2324]

tc2324 - I'd forgotten that tail, it's a little beyond what I'm planning, I'm not sure if I could replicate that pattern, even if the checks weren't 'sloped' at the diagonal. The tail I am planning will be more like this

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/25229-last-year/

The seventh aircraft down (The Hawk!) but the rest of the air-frame in 1950s/60s silver

also - I don't think 56 squadron ever flew Sabres? At least not in our universe?!

Think that reply should of been directed at TallEng? 

[Knightflyer]

Modified and Amended thanks - tc2324. I was looking at your name in the quotes and missed the postee - so to speak!

Anyway back to the modelling table ....via the washing up, hoovering and putting clothes away  .....I'm doing something wrong somewhere!  

[The Rat]

Why am I late to the party again? I love the Swift! If it had developed as a better overall aircraft than the Hunter then yes, as others have said any Hunter squadron would be a no-brainer. After that my initial guess would be that any Hunter squadrons using them for FR would never have done so, the Swift was far better down low in every respect so there would be no need. In fact it was one of the better aircraft in that role in all of NATO, which opens up the possibilities even more. It could have replaced RF-84s in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands or Norway. Oooh, my mind is reeling with possibilities!

[XV107]

It was 66 rather than 56 with the Sabres; they were at Linton-on-Ouse with 92, rather than at Waterbeach.

[NARSES2]

Thank you Ratty, I now know what to do with mine when I get it 

[kitbasher]

Why am I late to the party again? I love the Swift! If it had developed as a better overall aircraft than the Hunter then yes, as others have said any Hunter squadron would be a no-brainer. After that my initial guess would be that any Hunter squadrons using them for FR would never have done so, the Swift was far better down low in every respect so there would be no need. In fact it was one of the better aircraft in that role in all of NATO, which opens up the possibilities even more. It could have replaced RF-84s in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands or Norway. Oooh, my mind is reeling with possibilities!

I can see Danish, Belgian and Dutch Swifts as they were all Hunter operators - leads back to someone's earlier suggestion of the Hunter being a failure and the Swift a success in Whifworld.  All green TacR Hunter in Danish markings would get my vote.

[Knightflyer]

So. another thought. Most of the discussion so far has been on a successful Swift replacing a failing Hunter. What-if it was a case of the Swift being as good as the Hunter? Would there be any room for a Swift/Hunter mix in the RAF in the 1950s ? Shades of the Battle if Britain again!? 

[PR19_Kit]

In 1940 there was a distinct difference in ability and tasking between the Hurricanes and Spitfires, the Hurricanes being seen as 'bomber destroyers' and the Spitfires acting as top cover to keep the Luftwaffe fighters off the Hurricanes. While I admit to being biased toward the Hurricane (one of them was the first aircraft I ever sat in apparently, at age 4 when I was in Egypt.  ) that different tasking seemed to  make a lot of sense and it worked.

To operate a similar mix with the Hunter and Swift you'd have to postulate a similar difference in tasking perhaps, but this time with the manufactureres the other way round.  The Swift always seemed too portly to me to be inherantly that fast, whereas the Hunter was a slim, lissom thing that almost seemed to slide between the air molecules on its way to Mach 1. Was there a task of 'top cover' during the Cold War though? The Soviets didn't seem to embrace the context of the escort fighter in that period, so how would you mis the tasking between the two types?

[kitbasher]

Swift in the Fighter Recce (the FR5 was reputedly very good in that role) and/or Fighter Ground Attack roles as early Vampire/Venom replacements with the P1109 Hunter fully developed into a radar+missile interceptor?