Comper Swift

Swift
Role	Single-seat sporting aircraft
Manufacturer	Comper Aircraft Company Ltd
Designer	Nicholas Comper
First flight	1930
Produced	1930-1933
Number built	45

The Comper C.L.A.7 Swift is a British 1930s single-seat sporting aircraft produced by Comper Aircraft Company Ltd of Hooton Park, Cheshire.

In March 1929 Flight Lieutenant Nicholas Comper left the Royal Air Force and formed the Comper Aircraft Company to build an aircraft he had designed, the Comper Swift. He had previously designed and flown three aircraft for the Cranwell Light Aeroplane Club: the C.L.A.2, C.L.A.3 and C.L.A.4. The prototype Swift (registered G-AARX) first flew at Hooton Park in January 1930. The aircraft was a small single-seat, braced high-wing monoplane constructed of fabric-covered spruce wood frames. The first Swift was powered by a 40 hp (30 kW) ABC Scorpion piston engine. After successful tests, seven more aircraft were built in 1930, powered by a 50 hp Salmson A.D.9 radial engine. Trials with Pobjoy P radial engine for use in air racing resulted in all the subsequent aircraft being powered by the Pobjoy R. The last three factory-built aircraft (sometimes called the Gipsy Swift) were fitted with de Havilland Gipsy engines - two with 120 hp (89 kW) Gipsy Major III, and one with a 130 hp (97 kW) Gipsy Major. One of the Gipsy Swifts, owned by the then-Prince of Wales and future King Edward VIII, won second place in the 1932 King's Cup Race while being flown by his personal pilot. Postwar, surviving Swifts continued to compete successfully in UK air races into the mid-1950s.

A new-build aircraft, registered G-ECTF, and built according to the original plans, with a Pobjoy Cataract engine, is expected to fly in 2015.

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