The Legacy of a Great Aircraft!
The Swift Magic Team performs with 210 hp engines for the wingmen and 180 hp engines for the wingmen and 180 hp for the
lead. Other improvements seen in the more highly modified "Super Swift" include full modern radio/navigation equipment, bubble
canopies and yoke to stick conversions. There are more approved airframe and power plant modifications for the Swift than
any other general aviation aircraft type produced – a testament to the unique and enduring appeal of this remarkable
aircraft. Many of today’s Swifts have been refitted with engines up to 250 hp.
The birthplace of the Swift was Ft. Worth, TX, in early 1940. Mr. R.S. "Pop" built two-place retractable gear aircraft
called "The Swift" the very first low wing, Johnson of Ft. Worth. Mr. Johnson was reputed to have taken the trial delivery
of a Culver Cadet, measured its vital organs and returned it to Culver. He subsequently built an aircraft and began the search
for a financier and builder. Mr. Johnson contacted Mr. John Kennedy of Ft. Worth, the president and founder of Globe Medicine
Company and Globe Aircraft Company. Kennedy’s Globe Aircraft Company had been a very active sub-contractor during the
war years, with production of AT10’s under contract with Beechcraft. Looking for postwar business, he and Mr. Johnson
were able to make a deal.
With Johnson’s "homebuilt" Swift as a starting point, Globe had Johnson working with their Chief Engineer K.H. "Bud"
Knox in preparing the Swift for production. The war effort delayed their work somewhat but after testing two prototypes of
all-wood or wood-metal construction, what finally emerged was an all-metal version. While Kennedy provided the resources and
know how to form the Globe Aircraft Co., which produced the Swift, he gave credit for the design of the all-metal version
to a young design engineer K.H. "Bud" Knox. Mr. Knox came to Globe from Curtis Aircraft where he was instrumental in the design
of the development of the P-40 "Warhawk". The fighter like look and flying characteristics of the Swift can clearly be traced
to this venerable linage of WWII ‘pursuit’ aircraft. As for Mr. Johnson, he became disenchanted with some of the
changes occurring to "his" design and quit the company. (After leaving Globe Aircraft Co., he went back to Fort Worth and
continued on his own. He then built the "Texas Bullet" and the "Johnson Rocket," a few of which are still flying today.)
Logically promoted in period advertising as the ALL METAL SWIFT, to set it apart from the early wood/tub/fabric prototype
Swifts, this was the start of the Swift type, as we know it today. The first, N33336, GC-1A s/n 2, is still in airworthy condition
today. N33336 was the Swift used for all GC-1A flight tests, certification, etc. It was built and flight-tested along with
several other GC-1A’s in late 1945. Certification and the issuance of the Type Certificate A0766 for the 85 HP GC-1A
was issued May 7, 1946. Beginning with s/n 2 and ending with s/n 409 a total of 408 GC-1A Swifts were built. The performance
of the early 85 HP Swifts was less than spectacular, and so Globe went back to the drawing board. The Type Certificate for
the 125 HP GC-1B was issued Sept. 22, 1946. Production records show many of the flight tests of the early GC-1B’s were
also conducted early in 1946.
Due to the success of the 1944, 1945 and 1946 national advertising programs, a tremendous demand and backlog of orders
for Swifts resulted. All the ads of this period depicted the original GC-1 Swift. To meet this backlog of orders, Globe entered
into a contract with newly founded TEMCO (Texas Engineering and Manufacturing Company) at nearby Grand Prairie, TX, to built
Swifts under sub-contract simultaneously with the Glob production. Beginning in May of 1946, TEMCO set up production and began
producing GC-1B Swifts at the rate of 15 aircraft per day. Temco built 329 Swifts. With globe and TEMCO together producing
a total of 833 GC-1B’s in just over a six-month period. Production finally caught up and exceeded orders and the parking
fields near both plants began to fill with unsold Swifts.
Kennedy soon closed the doors for various business reasons but primarily to avoid what we would today call a corporate
"hostile takeover". TEMCO obtained rights to the Swift as payment for money owned them by Globe. From 1947 through 1951, TEMCO
produced 260 Swifts with the last one finished August 23, 1951.
The US Air Force was impressed enough with the Swift to order a military trainer version, the %-35 Buckaroo, for testing.
However, the new all jet Air Force did not have a place for an "old fashioned tail dragger". Its superb flying qualities were
not overlooked, however, and a squadron of the T-35’s was purchased by a Middle Eastern air force, fully armed with
machine-guns and rockets! One of these aircraft was returned to our shores and is now fully restored and flown by the Swift
Museum Foundation located in Athens, Tennessee.
For More Information
The Swift Museum Foundation, Inc. can find a more detailed history of the Swift in the book The First Fifty Years of the
Swift published, P.O. Box 644, Athens, Tennessee 37371. You can order your copy by calling the Swift parts department at 423-744-9696.
For those with Internet Access: Joining the ‘Electronic Swift Wing’!
News, views member info and misc. gossip is e-mailed at the "GLOBE/TEMCO SWIFT INTERNET UPDATE"
Contact Denis Arbeau at arbeau@napanet.net
(Originally published in the Official Program of Lunken Air show 1999 – August 28 & 29, 1999. Hosted by the Lunken
Airport Benefits Association, Inc. 262 Wilmer Avenue, 1st Floor, Cincinnati, OH 45226. ph. 513-321-4291. )
