Supermarine Swift - Survivor Simulator (WK272?)

Now, this Swift cockpit section is a bit of a mystery. For a good while it was at East Kirkby and was thought to be the cockpit section of the first Swift prototype, VV119. On further investigation this proved not to be the case and the general consensus was that it was really a purpose-built cockpit procedures trainer and was never part of a real Swift at all. However, on moving to the Southampton Hall of Aviation (now Solent Sky), Kim Raquet there made a detailed examination and found evidence to suggest that it was indeed a cockpit from a real Swift, and he's narrowed it down to being either WK272 or WK282 based on manufacturer's data plates found in various places in the cockpit. A number of Swifts were made around the same date but were ruled out because their fates were definitely known (e.g. WK277 and WK281 are intact so it can't be from either of them).

Anyway, it was certainly used as a procedures trainer and is in surprisingly good condition as you can see from the cockpit photos on this site. The canopy is now kept open, and supervised access to the cockpit is possible. The Museum occasionally use this cockpit as a travelling exhibit so it can sometimes be found tucked away among the stalls at airshows - look out for the History Channel/Solent Sky tent.

Information on this page current as of 05/02/2022, last updated by Damien

Find other photos of Simulator on the following sites:

Air-Britain - Airliners.net - Airplane-Pictures.net - flickr.com - WorldAirPics.com - JetPhotos.net - PlanePictures.net