Comper Swifts of New Zealand - ZK-ACG

I noted in my recent post about the recently registered Comper Swift ZK-UVC that here had been another Comper Swift registered in New Zealand, ZK-ACG which was around in the 1930s.  I asked if anyone could send any photos of it and Flyernzl and Ron Ark have responded - thanks guys.

ZK-ACG  was our original Comper CLA.7 Swift  (c/n S.30/08), which was registered on 08-04-1931 to H L D West of Whakatane. It was named named "Kitten" and was powered by a ABC Scorpion engine which was I think a 2 cylinder engine.  In July 1933  ownership changed to R Fairey of Whakatane and F J McDonald & J S Aitken of Auckland.

On 19-04-1937 it crashed at Wigram when it was stalled in a downwind turn (prior to landing?), when it was being flown by J S Aitken.  The wreck was sold to Stanley A Tucker, J D Hurley and J MacIntosh. and was rebuilt.  After rebuild it was re-engined with a Salmson AD9 nine cylinder radial engine from a  B A Swallow and a dorsal fin was fitted.  I think that the above photo may be of it after this rebuild as the aircraft has the 9 cylinder radial engine, narrow tyres and the front of the fuselage is unpainted.  And it has a quite different dorsal fin and rudder to the factory built one ((refer back to my post on ZK-UVC).

These two photos of it show the aircraft with the unpainted forward fuselage and the narrow wheels.

Unfortunately it crashed again on its first test flight at Wigram (?), this time being flown by by F J McDonald.  The date of this second crash is not recorded.

I think this must be the crash after the test flight as it has the modified dorsal fin and rudder.

It was then rebuilt again by Messrs Stan Tucker and Holmes with new cowls and low pressure tires and it was test flown on 23-07-1938.

These two photos show it presumably after the second rebuild as it has the low pressure tyres and the slightly different cowling has the cheat line painted on.

These photos must have been taken in 1938 or early 1939.  

There is a video of the Swift flying in the same colours in 1938 at the old Rongotai airport from the Nga Taonga film archives (the footage of the Swift is about 10 minutes in) at: https://ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=63526

It finally crashed on 10-04-1939 at Te Wera, Taranaki after the pilot became lost in fog and crash landed in a swamp near Hiuakaka School at Te Wera, and it was cancelled from the register the same month, in April 1939.

So now we need to find a photo of ZK-ACG with its original engine and factory built fin and rudder - anyone out there got one?

Interestingly the registration VH-ACG was also allocated to a Comper Swift in Australia so both ZK/VH-UVC and ZK/VH-ACG were all Comper Swifts

Comper Swift ZK-ACG Addendum

In my previous post on Comper Swift ZK-ACG I asked if anyone could supply a photo of it in its early days in New Zealand - before it was re-engined with the Salmson AD 9 radial.

Well we have come up trumps as Murray Kirkus has supplied a photo:

ZK-ACG looks quite a bit different in this photo with a very streamlined cowling around what I assume is the 40 HP 2 cylinder ABC Scorpion engine.  This was the engine that was fitted to the early Swifts.  And the tail is the shape of the prototype Swift and different from the later models such as ZK/VH-UVC.

Murray says that he copied the photo from a magazine article on the Comper Aircraft Company's aircraft.  Thanks for the photo Murray.

Comper Swifts of New Zealand

The next type of "sport" aircraft to be registered in New Zealand was very different as it had a history that goes back 85 years!

The Comper C.L.A. 7 Swift was designed by ex RAF Flight Lieutenant Nicolas Comper and was built by his company, the Comper Aircraft Company at Hooton Aerodrome in Cheshire, with the prototype first flying in 1930.  It has folding wings for storage.  A total of 45 Comper Swifts were built over the next three years.  They were designed as racing machines for the then burgeoning UK air racing scene.  More recently a couple of very nice replicas have been built in the UK.

The specifications for the Comper Swift are:  length 17 feet 8.5 inches (5.4 metres), wingspan 24 feet (7.32 metres) and the wing area is 90 square feet.  It's empty weight is around 540 pounds and the MAUW is 985 pounds (447 Kg).  Several engines were installed in Comper Swifts but the most common one was the Pobjoy R 7 cylinder radial engine of 75 HP and had a reduction gearbox which enabled the engine to at a higher speed and produce more power while the propellor also ran at a more efficient slower speed.  With this engine the maximum speed was around 140 mph and the stall speed is around 57 mph.

Our recently registered Comper Swift was VH-UVC (c/n S32/10) until being shipped to New Zealand.  This aircraft has a long history - it was built as G-ACAG in 1932 by the Comper Aircraft Company of Hooton Park, Cheshire, and spent the next 2 years being demonstrated around Europe before being exported to Australia where it remained active until 1962.  It then had a series of owners in storage until being shipped to JEM Aviation of Omaka in January 2014 for a major rebuild.  The rebuild was extensive and is detailed at:  http://www.jemaviation.co.nz/current/comper-swift/

The rebuild took longer than expected but the Swift was completed to a taxyable standard by the time of the 2017 Classic Flyers airshow at Omaka on 15/4/17, as shown in the photo above.

It was registered as ZK-UVC on 7/11/16.  This was done for test flying purposes and it was test flown as ZK-UVC (ie minus the VH lettering) at Omaka as in the above photo.

After test flying was complete ZK-UVC was cancelled on 7/6/18 and the aircraft was returned to Australia where it took up its old registration as VH-UVC.

I had thought that this was the only Comper Swift to be registered here until I was researching for this post and I discovered that we had had another one!  ZK-ACG was registered in New Zealand in 1931 and was cancelled from the register in 1939.  Can anyone supply a photo of ZK-ACG?

And finally, there is a replica Comper Swift being built at Blenheim so we will have to watch out for it in time.  Interesting.

Classic Fighters 2023 - Comper Swift Replica

A feature of Classic Fighters is the Restoration Row that is in the Marlborough Aero Club hangar.  This year there there were projects including Yak 7 and 9B fighters, the fifth rediscovered Bristol Fighter, a Fokker D VIII and a DH 2 replica which is one of several at Omaka.  However there was one other aircraft that I had not known of and was a surprise:

That was a replica Comper Swift project that is marked as ZK-ACG2 although it has not yet been registered.  As can be seen in the details sheet below (click to enlarge) it is powered by a Revmaster VW conversion and it is expected to fly this year.

  

The original ZK-ACG was also a Comper Swift that was registered back in 1931, and that we have covered the history of HERE