Swallow Super Swallow

The Swallow Super Swallow is an American-built general purpose biplane of the late 1920s, developed from the Swallow New Swallow. Versions powered by the 90-hp (66-kW) Curtiss OX-5 engine and the 220-hp (162-kW) Wright J-5 engine are also known as the Swallow 90 and Swallow 220 or as the OX-5 Swallow and J5 Swallow.

Design and development
The Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Co successfully marketed a derivative of the Laird Swallow as the New Swallow in 1924. Already by this time, it was apparent to aircraft designers that steel airframes offered advantages over the traditional wooden airframes as used in the New Swallow. Swallow designers Lloyd Stearman and Walter Beech approached company founder Jacob Moellendick with a plan to redesign the Swallow with a steel structure. Favoring a more conservative approach, Moellendick rejected their suggestion, and Stearman and Beech quit Swallow to found their own company, Travel Air, with Clyde Cessna.

By 1926, however, Moellendick relented, and company manager Charles Laird and designer Waverly Stearman (brothers of E. M. Laird and Lloyd Stearman) presented him with a design for a modernized Swallow. Keeping the original Swallow layout, the Super Swallow fuselage and tail were built on a frame of welded chrome-moly steel tubes, while keeping a wooden structure for the wings. The wooden, parallel interplane and cabane struts were changed to steel "N" configuration. Attention was given to streamlining throughout the design, including the engine cowl, struts, and bracing wires. The wing profile was changed from the Clark Y to the higher-camber USA 27.

The OX-5-powered Super Swallow was issued Approved Type Certificate (ATC) 21 by the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce in December 1927. Hispano-Suiza 8-powered, J-5-powered and Axelson-powered versions were certificated under ATC 50, ATC 51, and ATC 125 respectively.

Production continued until 1929.

Operational history
Like other general-purpose aircraft, Super Swallows were used for recreational flying, short-range passenger flights, and pilot training. One notable Super Swallow owner was rodeo and movie star Hoot Gibson who owned a J5 Swallow.

In the early 21st century, at least two Super Swallows were still flying: serial number 842, registration NC979, and serial number 899, registration N4028. NC979 has been restored to close to original configuration and specifications. N4028 has been extensively modified, including the installation of a Continental R-670 engine in place of its original OX-5. This latter aircraft forms part of the collection of the Experimental Aircraft Association at Pioneer Airport, where it is used to offer joyrides to the public. As of 2024, its owners suggested that it might be the oldest aircraft available to hire this way anywhere in the world.

Other preserved Super Swallows include:
 * OX-5 Swallow registration C6191 at the Kansas Aviation Museum
 * OX-5 Swallow serial number 968, registration N6070 at the Museum of Flight (modified to replace its engine with a Continental R-670, and painted to represent a New Swallow mailplane operated by Varney Air Lines
 * OX-5 Swallow serial number 1012, registration NC7797 at the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum

Variants



 * Super Swallow : also known as OX-5 Swallow and Swallow 90; original production version with Curtiss OX-5 engine. ATC 21
 * Hisso Swallow : Super Swallow fitted with Hispano-Suiza 8A or 8E engine. ATC 50
 * J5 Swallow : also known as Swallow 220; Super Swallow fitted with Wright J-5 radial engine. ATC 51
 * Swallow F28-AX : also known as Swallow Special; Super Swallow fitted with Axelson radial engine. Only one known to be built (Canadian registration CF-AUL). ATC 125