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Swallows!

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2020 3:19 pm
by AndrewN
Hi Folks.

I love the forum, it's going to make the group much easier to work with.
By way of my introduction here are a few things I built last Christmas for a "Whatif?" group build.

Barnes Wallice's design for a swing wing aircraft called Swallow.

Re: Swallows!

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2020 5:06 pm
by MikeV
Hi Andrew

Excellent - keep 'em coming.........I do like Barnes Wallis designs - years ahead of his time. Can't resist re-posting Mike McEvoy's 'Swallow over Brize Norton' pic from a while back, and by way of addition to the canon as it were, my lockdown build of the more or less contemporary Avro 730, marked, obviously, as a 617 aircraft

Both so Dan Dare in style too!

mike
Swallow C1 over Brize Norton by Mike McEvoy
Swallow C1 over Brize Norton by Mike McEvoy
Avro 730 in 617 Sqdn markings
Avro 730 in 617 Sqdn markings

Re: Swallows!

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:20 pm
by AndrewN
:D

Re: Swallows!

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2020 9:03 am
by DH106
Fantastic Swallow and I love Mike's air to air shot.

Re: Swallows!

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2020 8:54 am
by TerryP
As you say a lovely shot, I do wonder how the wings would have been constructed. They would be required to handle the thrust of those four massive engines mounted at such a distance from the wing mounting point. But then Barnes Wallace knew a thing or two.

Re: Swallows!

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2020 5:25 pm
by teddybeer
Another Swallow (Dh.108) which, this one, flew brilliantly, even if it ended badly at the end.
IMG_1009.JPG
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Re: Swallows!

Posted: Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:16 pm
by TerryP
You are right when you say they ended up badly. three were built all three crashed and killed their pilots one of the pilots was Geoffrey De Havilland's son.
Terry

Re: Swallows!

Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2021 9:38 am
by dab
Some lovely modelling there Terry. You just wonder how it would have operated considering all the technical challenges that would have been presented by the design.

Re: Swallows!

Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2021 1:02 pm
by DH106
Wallis did manage to make the Wild Goose configuration fly. I always think of Wallis as a prime example of being far ahead of his time, but not necessarily in the right direction. Vickers did actually commission Heston to build a subscale demonstrator aircraft but never flew it. That book Project Cancelled helped perpetuate the myth, among many others, that the Swallow was the ancestor of all VG aircraft, while forgetting that two variable sweep aircraft flew successfully in the US before Vickers even got the Wild Goose off its trolley. I think the crucial point in Wallis' thinking, of which variable wing sweep was only a part, was to achieve a "wing-controlled vehicle" that would have a pure aerodynamic form with no need for separate control surfaces. He seems to have been heading in a similar direction with his torpedo work, and in his pursuit of pure aerodynamic shapes for his bombs.

On a darker note, the pub named after him in his birthplace of Ripley, Derbyshire, has shut. Unfortunately there is no Oswald Short pub to celebrate another aviation pioneer who started life in Derbyshire.

Re: Swallows!

Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:51 pm
by MikeV
an even darker note the Barnes Wallis pub near Howden has also gone for good. It was a great local aviation landmark as it stood next a railway crossing on one of the long straight bits of track that made it a regular and irresistible target for young (ok, and old)pilots unable to resist rolling in and going dakkka dakkka on passing trains. Just up the road at what was once RNAS Howden the old site of the airship hanger is now a wind farm - only a wind break survives now.

We need a 1/144 Warwick!