This one was built by Globe. It's been upengined to a O-360 over the original C-125. It's not terribly unusual to find them with even larger motors.
Globe went bankrupt making the Swift. TEMCO acquired the assets and sold more of them. The Swift Museum Foundation currently owns the type certificate (A766). Roy LoPresti designed a very similar airplane, the SwiftFury, when he worked for Piper. Piper took over 500 orders before the company folded (the folks making airplanes today do so as "the New Piper Aircraft Co."). LoPresti eventually was able to buy the rights to the SwiftFury (or "Fury"), but they've not been able to bring it out. Though they keep working at it, no new production Swift has been made since 1951.
Flyable Swifts can be found for $30,000 or so. But you can also find ones where the owners have spent over $200,000 in restoration and upgrades.
That one's got the P-51 gear doors too. Beautiful planes. It was basically a poor man's Mustang.
ReplyDeleteMy primary CFI had one. He claimed it was certified for aerobatics, although I don't know that for a fact. Never got a ride in it.
ReplyDeleteLRod
ZJX, ORD, ZAU retired