Supermarine Swift - Survivor WK198
F.4 WK198 - Privately owned, Brooklands Museum, Weybridge, Surrey
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Swift F.4 WK198 at Millom, 25th November 2017; Richard E Flagg
WK198 first flew on 27th May 1953 as an F.1 to F.4 conversion.
On 5th July 1953, she made a record-breaking flight from London to Paris in 19mins 5seconds. Shortly afterwards she broke the world absolute speed record at 737.7mph in Libya. Very little is known of its service career but it did display at Farnborough and was used by Vickers for trials.
Retired on 1st January 1957 she ended up in a scrapyard near Manchester and it was by pure chance that she was found there. The North East Air Museum was made aware of this and on the 17th May 1981 the owner of the yard permitted the NEAM to borrow the aircraft fuselage and she was moved to Sunderland. Some restoration work was carried out before the owner objected to further work. She was displayed at a Farnborough show but when NEAM's loan agreement came to an end she was moved to the RAF Millom Museum.
Sadly that museum went under in 2010 and the exhibits have all been dispersed to other sites or scrapped. Thankfully as WK198 was only on loan she was in no danger and moved to the Brooklands Museum in 2011, where it remains on display today.
On 5th July 1953, she made a record-breaking flight from London to Paris in 19mins 5seconds. Shortly afterwards she broke the world absolute speed record at 737.7mph in Libya. Very little is known of its service career but it did display at Farnborough and was used by Vickers for trials.
Retired on 1st January 1957 she ended up in a scrapyard near Manchester and it was by pure chance that she was found there. The North East Air Museum was made aware of this and on the 17th May 1981 the owner of the yard permitted the NEAM to borrow the aircraft fuselage and she was moved to Sunderland. Some restoration work was carried out before the owner objected to further work. She was displayed at a Farnborough show but when NEAM's loan agreement came to an end she was moved to the RAF Millom Museum.
Sadly that museum went under in 2010 and the exhibits have all been dispersed to other sites or scrapped. Thankfully as WK198 was only on loan she was in no danger and moved to the Brooklands Museum in 2011, where it remains on display today.
Information on this page current as of 25/10/2024, last updated by Jake |
Find other photos of WK198 on the following sites:
Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net