072-022 DE HAVILLAND DH108 SWALLOW

The De Havilland DH.108 Swallow was a British test jet aircraft from the post-war period. The plane had a metal structure and a landing gear retracted in flight in the classic configuration. The machine was first flew in 1946. The propulsion was provided by a turbojet engine de Havilland Goblin-5 with a thrust of 16.67 kN . The plane did not have permanent on-board weapons. The DH.108 Swallow was developed by the de Havilland aerospace manufacturer in response to a 1945 specification by the British Air Ministry. This specification assumed the creation of an experimental aircraft that would allow theoretical assumptions about the oblique wing and its behavior at high speeds to be tested in practice. The work was somewhat naturally undertaken by this aviation company, as it was already involved in the design work on the Comet passenger jet plane. In total, three prototypes of the DH.108 Swallow plane were created, one of which crashed, resulting in the death of the test pilot and the son of the company owner - Geoffrey de Havilland Jr.. In turn, the third and final prototype was the first British aircraft to exceed the speed of sound in 1948. However, he also crashed two years later.