What Could Have Been…. And It’s British

Designed by Barnes Wallis, the “Swallow” (seriously, they could have given it a better name!) was a proposed supersonic aircraft developed by Vickers-Armstrong.

Who Was Barnes Wallis?

Now Barnes Wallis was a long-time employee of Vickers-Armstrong and a bit of a celebrated scientist, engineer, and inventor. Ever heard of the Bouncing Bomb or the “Earthquake Bomb”? Yes, he created those, and after WW2, Wallis took an interest in the field of variable-sweep wings. He saw potential in the rather unorthodox design and even began test flights of a remote-controlled model called “The Wild Goose”. So when the British Ministry of Defense came with Specification OR.330, which sought to develop a new supersonic bomber for the RAF, Wallis came up with what would be known as “The Swallow.”

A number of models were created for testing, and by all accounts, the results showed that the radical design did hold some promise. But in 1957, government backing was withdrawn for many aeronautical research and development programs, including the Swallow. Not yet wanting to give up on his project, Wallis/Vickers ended up sharing his research with the U.S. under the Mutual Weapons Development Programme of NATO.

Interest in the United States

There were a number of engineers in America who were quite impressed with the design, and even NASA was said to be eyeing the project. However, the United States Department of Defense was not keen on releasing funding for the development of a potential American Swallow, and in the end, the project was eventually shelved.