Vickers Swallow

[umbral sleet]

In the mid-1950s, Britain’s Vickers-Armstrongs quietly drew up something decades ahead of its time: the Swallow, a tailless swing-wing aircraft that could serve as both a high-speed interceptor and a long-range transport. Designed by Barnes Wallis (of “bouncing bomb” fame), it featured a central fuselage with sleek, folding delta wings that could pivot in flight — giving it short-takeoff capability at low speeds and blistering efficiency at supersonic cruise.

The Swallow was meant to be multi-role before the term even existed: a fighter, bomber, reconnaissance aircraft, and even civilian airliner in different configurations. It was envisioned to operate from normal runways, with potential speeds of Mach 2 and ranges that would rival intercontinental jets.

[lean sparrow]

sst? instadenied

[opal robin]

whatever they smoked to think this up imma stay far away from

[lean sparrow]

Lowkey this looks like something out of star wars

[clever quarry]

wtf is this

[atomic flume]

everything is inconsistent on the given images

[umbral sleet]

It's very obscure, apologies. I will find more images.

[lean sparrow]

Can maybe see the bomber version getting added tho

[prisma current]

fffuck yeah i love whatever british engineers were smoking between 1950 and 1970

[vast solstice]

this is some funky looking Tu-160

again

[haughty hull]

why people always suggesting adding vehicles to the game instead of changing the current in-game features to make player experiences better

[vast solstice]

more vehicles = more stuff/feature for collecting and piloting

ig

[umbral sleet]

yes

i found ALOT of books

ALOT

[brisk steeple]

is that right image a simpleplanes screenshot

[lean sparrow]

I think so

[orchid snow]

sst ban?

or is this subsonic

[umbral sleet]

Yes.

[lean sparrow]

This thing has a bomber version so it's kinda fuzzy

[amber drift]

Ignoring the sst ban for a moment

Do you even have any definitive stats?

[lean sparrow]

Only definite stat I can find is speed, which is stated as Mach 2.5 by several sources

[thick knoll]

Speed: 1683 knots
Range: 4344 nmi
Ceiling: unknown, the only source (a magazine) is quite… egregious…

4-5 crew
60 passengers (SST config)
1x 10,000lb bomb (bomber config)

Can’t find anything on landing speeds either

[amber drift]

Hmmmm

SST bans time to shine

[thick knoll]

real

[vast acorn]

this feels a lot like a paper ambition project than a realistic plane, those engine pods on swivels would be a maintenance nightmare and drag disaster

[brisk steeple]

and if they fail midair

[daring lake]

Can this thing even survive a 2 knot crosswind

-# it does look like something I'd build in plane crazy though

[thick knoll]

Probably not

After digesting info for like 5 mins, evidently the aircraft has no control surfaces at all with those duties being controlled by the engines

[daring lake]

It is not surviving a bird strike too 💔

[sterile wren]

Dank is AFK: work - 29 minutes ago

[daring lake]

Wait
No control surfaces at all
That'd require shit tons of computer calculation and stuff

If they want to do all that by engine

[brisk steeple]

so uh

this might be the only SST i dont support adding into the game

not because the suggestion is bad, but because

this SST sucks

[thick knoll]

Bomber version

[brisk steeple]

no control surfaces? hell no

[thick knoll]

Spratt Controlwing exhibited high maneuvering characteristics despite no control surfaces aside from the wing itself

Although that’s a recreational aircraft and not a mach 2.5 bomber lmao

[lean sparrow]

Bombing config:

[brisk steeple]

EXACTLY

watch this flatspin out of the sky as soon as it goes transsonic

[lean sparrow]

This thing would simply be too cumbersome to add

[brisk steeple]

i WILL protest if they ever decide to add this

such a stupid and sad thing

wtf were the british on when making this design

[thick knoll]

Well uh

[lean sparrow]

And this got denied

[thick knoll]

That plane was designed to be able to flatspin

But in something like this….

[brisk steeple]

[lean sparrow]

Honestly idrc about it being denied since this thing is weird as hell

[thick knoll]

Also lacks stats

[lean sparrow]

If it had stats then MAYBE the bomber config might stand a chance

[brisk steeple]

imagine flying a plane that was literally designed to do something that crashes evey other plane

[thick knoll]

This is all I got

[brisk steeple]

you could probably figure out the altitude ceiling and stall speed using math

but nahhh

math is for people who dont play this game

[thick knoll]

Criteria calls for an explicit stat from a reputable source

Not math

But yea

[brisk steeple]

what if i call up

albert einstein

to calculate this for us

[lean sparrow]

Some aircraft have stall speeds calculated via runway length

[daring lake]

Looks pretty beautiful ngl

I think I've seen another version with canards

Oh no nvm Im thinking of another aircraft

[lean sparrow]

60s skylon ahh

[gray trout]

This thing looks like it was designed by Dr. Seuss