Swen Swanson

Swen (Sven) Swanson (1897/98 – February 1935) was a Swedish aircraft designer. He designed aircraft for various aviation companies in the United States and also designed prototype and experimental airplanes. He was known as an innovative aircraft designer. He later worked in partnership with Ole Fahlin. Swanson started designing airplanes while in his teens and by the time he was in college he had designed his third airplane. He founded the Swanson Aircraft Company Inc. and became its chief engineer and president.[1] While working for his own company he designed and built the Swanson W-15 Coupe.[2] He has been described as a "brilliant man of great capabilities and extreme modesty".[3]

Swen Swanson
Born1897/98
Sweden
DiedFebruary 1935
Known forAircraft design and manufacture

Career

Swanson designed and constructed,[4] his first home-built airplane in 1915 when he was 17 years old which was a one-person monoplane which could have been retroactively named the SS1.[4][5][6] At age 19 he designed and built his second airplane, a one-person biplane, which could have been retroactively called the SS2.[4] In 1922, while a college student, he designed his third aircraft, the biplane SS3, standing for "Swanson Sport", featuring fuselage made of wood and monocoque design and using a two-cylinder Lawrance engine.[7][6] He also designed the Kari-Keen 90 Sioux Coupe and the Arrow Sport.[3] These airplanes featured the characteristic Swanson cantilever wing design.[8] The Swanson planes also shared a similar seating configuration; the two-passengers were seated beside each other.[9]

Lincoln-Standard Airplane Co.

In 1923, Swanson had already graduated from the Aeronautical Engineering School at Vermillion, South Dakota and joined the Lincoln-Standard Airplane Co. previously known as the Nebraska Aircraft Company. He worked there as chief engineer replacing their previous chief engineer, Timm. Swanson in his new role at Lincoln-Standard designed completely new aircraft. In addition, in consultation with Harold K. Phillips, superintendent of maintenance at the company, he designed a new small airplane, the Lincoln Sport, which was a single seater and was based on his earlier design the Swanson Sport.[10][11]

Arrow Aircraft Co.

In 1925 Swanson left Lincoln-Standard and was hired at Arrow Aircraft Company in Havelock, Nebraska.[12] At Arrow he designed a five-passenger plane, the Arrow 5.[12][13] He also designed the Arrow Sport A2-60 which was built in 1926. In February 1929 the plane was certified as A2-60 and its price was set in the range of $2,900-3,485. The structural integrity of the airplane frame was very good and the fact that the pilot and passenger were seated beside each other, the view from the cockpit and the fact that it had controls for both passengers made the plane popular, as a trainer, among pilots. It also featured the trademark cantilever wings of Swanson's design. By 1931, approximately 100 planes had been built but due to the Great Depression the market for recreational airplanes collapsed and the manufacturer went into receivership in 1940. An Arrow Sport Model A2-60 with serial number 341 is on exhibit at the Smithsonian.[14]

Kari-Keen

Swanson's design of the Kari-Keen Coupe monoplane incorporated his trademark seating of two people alongside each other and was an unusual design at the time.[15] Following the first version of the Kari-Keen Coupe, Swanson designed the Kari-Keen 90, an improved version.[6] But the Kari-Keen factory fell victim to the Great Depression and by early 1930 it closed its doors. Swanson did not wait for long and left Kari-Keen to devote his time to the design of his Swanson Coupe W15, which has been described as "beautiful".[6]

Swanson Aircraft Co.
Main article: Swanson Coupe

In 1931, after he left Kari-Keen, Swanson established the Swanson Aircraft Co. Inc. with headquarters at Hopewell, Virginia,[16] and built the Swanson Coupe W15 whose design incorporated new breakthroughs such as a new type of patented wing structure which enabled unobstructed view from the cockpit to both pilot and passenger even from above their heads. This was done by eliminating an extra wing span which used to obstract the ceiling of the cockpit and limit overhead vision.[6][17][18] Swanson did not have any commercial success with his Swanson Coupe.[6] He subsequently decided to dissolve his aircraft company and go to the midwest to join the aircraft company of his friend Ole Fahlin.[6] The Swanson Coupe became the basis of the first airplane produced jointly by them, the Fahlin SF-1, which in turn was the precursor of the Swanson-Fahlin SF-2 Plymocoupe.[4]

Fahlin Aircraft Co.

SF-1

Swen Swanson designed and built along with Fahlin the first airplane of their partnership, the SF-1, which stood for Swanson-Fahlin Model 1. The design and performance of the SF-1 was very successful. The plane was built in the facilities of the Nicholas-Beazley Airplane Company, which had provided working space for Fahlin at their Marshall, Missouri plant.[19] A reviewer, writing for the Western Aviation magazine, praised the performance of the Swanson-Fahlin SF-1 writing in 1934: "Having ridden in the new ship built by Swanson & Fahlin, I wish to say that it is the nicest little ship I have ever flown".[20] The SF-1 was one of the earliest examples of an American airplane designed specifically to accommodate the Pobjoy engine.[21]

Plymocoupe
Main article: Fahlin SF-2 Plymocoupe

In 1935,[1][7][22] following a competition called by the Bureau of Air Commerce, seeking design and construction proposals for an airplane affordable by the masses, Swanson designed the aircraft,[23] and Fahlin designed the propeller and produced the Fahlin SF-2 Plymocoupe which utilised the engine of a 1935 Plymouth which also featured design accents, both interior and exterior, borrowed from the same car. After flight testing by the Bureau, the Swanson-Fahlin plane design did not win the competition.[7][24][25][26] The Plymocoupe was classified as a "flying automobile" because it utilised the engine of the 1935 Plymouth car.[24] The Plymocoupe design also used many components borrowed from the car including the dashboard and the indicators.[27][28]

Death

Swanson died in February 1935 of pneumonia while still building the Swanson-Fahlin SF-2 Plymocoupe. After his death, the airplane was named the Fahlin SF-2 Plymocoupe.[29][26]

Literature

Swanson is mentioned in Jerry Sloniger's 2005 book 1924: Flying Capone's Booze, where he appears as the chief engineer of the Lincoln-Standard Airplane Company.[30]

Swanson designs
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References
  1. Frederick Thomas Jane (1935). Jane's All the World's Aircraft. S. Low, Marston Limited. p. 261. In 1934, the firm built a two-seat cabin monoplane to the designs of Mr. Sven Swanson. formerly President and Chief Engineer of the Swanson Aircraft Co., Inc., with the Ho h.p. Pobjoy "R" engine. This machine was the prototype of the Fahlin Plymocoupe
  2. The AOPA Pilot: Voice of General Aviation. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. 1980. p. 100.
  3. Joseph P. Juptner (1 March 1993). U.S. Civil Aircraft Series. McGraw-Hill. p. 85. ISBN 978-0-8306-4366-0. S. S. Swanson later designed such interesting airplane types as the lovable "Arrow Sport", the keen little "Kari-Keen", the stately "Swanson Coupe", the "Fahlin Coupe", and the "Plyma-Coupe".
  4. "W-15 Coupe 1931 (ATC 2-312)". Design carried into Swanson-Fahlin SF-1. ... 1917 = 1pOM; span: 21'0". Swanson's first construction, age 17 at the time. Possibly designated SS-1 retrospectively. 1919 = 1pOB; span: 31'0". Possibly designated SS-2 retrospectively.
  5. AAHS Journal. American Aviation Historical Society. 2006. p. 14.
  6. U.S. Civil Aircraft. Aero Publishers. 1967. p. 112. ari-Keen" 90 was slight improvement over earlier Swanson design. Fig. 124. Neatly cowled in-line engines of "Osprey" were innovation. of his many accomplishments. Avidly interested in aeronautics, Swanson designed his first airplane in ...[...] Fretting over the inactivity, Swanson left Kari-Keen and began developing the beautiful Swanson "Coupe" model W-15. [...] Failing to achieve any success with his new "Coupe" model W-15, Swanson returned to the mid-west to design two more outstanding airplanes (the Swanson- Fahlin "Coupe" and the "Plymacoupe") before he succumbed to a very bad case of ...
  7. AAHS Journal. American Aviation Historical Society. 1999. pp. 120–122. The Fahlin SF-2 Plymocoupe was also built and tested by the Bureau in the program but was apparently rejected as unsuitable.[...] Fahlin SF-2 Plymocoupe (1935)
  8. The AOPA Pilot: Voice of General Aviation. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. 1980. p. 100. The Kari-Keen Coupe, the Sioux Coupe and finally the Swanson Coupe were all basically the same cantilever-wing cabin ... Swanson teamed up with an old friend, propeller-maker Ole Fahlin, to upgrade the design, which Fahlin produced as ...
  9. Sport Aviation. 39. Experimental Aircraft Association. 1990. p. 223. A small airplane by standards of the day, it had an upper wing span of 25 ft. ... Swanson would go on to design the Kari-Keen/Sioux Coupe, his own Swan- son Coupe and, with Ole Fahlin, the Plymacoupe ... all 2-place, side-by- side, high wing ...
  10. The AOPA Pilot: Voice of General Aviation. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. 1980. p. 105. In 1923, Timm was replaced as chief engineer by Swen Swanson, who developed some entirely new commercial designs.
  11. U.S. Civil Aircraft. Aero Publishers. 1967. p. 112. Swanson came to Lincoln-Standard Airplane Co. (formerly Nebraska Aircraft Co.) in 1923, shortly after graduating from his aeronautical engineering training in Vermillion, So. Dakota, and became their chief engineer. At Lincoln-Standard in .. [...] At Lincoln-Standard in 1924, he teamed up with Harold K. Phillips, superintendent of maintenance at the L-S shop. They designed the single-place Lincoln "Sport" (largely based on designs for the earlier Swanson "Sport") — a diminutive ...
  12. The AOPA Pilot: Voice of General Aviation. 23. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. 1980. p. 105. In 1923, Timm was replaced as chief engineer by Swen Swanson, who developed some entirely new commercial ... Swanson left in 1925 to join Arrow Aircraft in Havelock, Neb., where he developed a new five-seater that drew heavily on the .....
  13. American Aviation Historical Society (1965). American Aviation Historical Society Journal. American Aviation Historical Society. p. 295. In 1933, 01 af Fahlin and Swen Swanson, designer of the Arrow 5, Arrow Sport and Lincoln Sport, to name a few, put their heads together and dreamed up a very neat little cabin two-seater called the SF-1. It was designed around an 85 hp ...
  14. "Arrow Sport A2-60". Smithsonian.
  15. The AOPA Pilot. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. 1974. p. 68. Swanson's new airplane was the Kari- Keen Coupe, a little side-by-side, two- seater monoplane turned out at a time when such designs were rare. Further, it was a fully cantilevered monoplane with a tapered wood-frame wing and steel-tube ...
  16. Aero Digest. 18-19. Aeronautical Digest Publishing Corporation. 1931. p. 64. THE Swanson Aircraft Company, Inc., of Hopewell, Virginia, is now producing its cantilever monoplane known as the Swanson Coupe, Model W-15, recently approved by the Department of Commerce, and powered by the Warner Scarab ...
  17. Western Aerospace. Western Aviation Magazine. January 1931. p. 84. visibility that gives perfect forward and side vision, and for the first time, allows a full overhead vision — all for both pilot and passenger. This visibility comes from the patented wing truss, ...
  18. Flying Magazine. May 1931. p. 25. ISSN 0015-4806.
  19. Anita Wright (December 13, 2006). "Building the Vision: Paper prints history of N-B accomplishments". The Marshall Democrat-News.
  20. "Western Aerospace". Western Aviation Magazine. 1934. pp. 35–38. Having ridden in the new ship built by Swanson & Fahlin, I wish to say that it is the nicest little ship I have ever flown, having ...
  21. "Aviation's aircraft handbook". Aviation. 1935. p. 70. One of the first American planes to be designed around the Pobjoy engine has just been completed at the Nicholas-Beazley plant by Mr. Ole Fahlin, propeller manufacturer, and Mr. Swen Swanson, airplane designer.
  22. AAHS Journal. 51. American Aviation Historical Society. 2006. p. 14.
  23. Aero Digest. 24-25. Aeronautical Digest Publishing Corporation. 1934. p. 30.
  24. George W. Green (30 June 2010). Flying Cars, Amphibious Vehicles and Other Dual Mode Transports: An Illustrated Worldwide History. McFarland. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-7864-4556-1. Now, turning to that strange phenomenon, an airplane that thinks it's a car, we run into the Plymocoupe Airplane which sported the portholes and side trim of the 1935 Plymouth. It was labeled a flying automobile because it was powered by an engine manufactured for use in a 1935 Plymouth.
  25. Sport Aviation. 42. 1993. pp. 172–173. Damage to Owen's plane of many names - variously known as the SF- 2, Plymocoupe (also Plymacoupe and ... Ole Fahlin, known for hispropeller designs, and airplane designer Swen Swanson teamed up in planning the airplane for Fahlin ...
  26. Kimes, Beverly Rae; Clark, Henry Austin, Jr. (2 September 1996). Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. Krause Publications. p. 1206. ISBN 978-0-87341-428-9. Ole Fahlin and Swen Swanson built an experimental airplane powered by a 1 935 Plymouth engine converted for aviation use to ... When the Fahlm- Swanson design (called the Plymocoupe or SF-2) failed to win the government contest and ...
  27. Flying Magazine. August 1935. p. 96. ISSN 0015-4806. Here is a Plymouth Sedan and its offspring, the flying Plymo-Coupe. Many Plymouth auto parts are used in the plane. Right side of the Plymo-Coupe power plant showing that all.
  28. Flying Magazine. October 1935. p. 237. ISSN 0015-4806.
  29. "Swanson-Fahlin SF-2 Finis [365]". Became known as Fahlin after Swanson's death from pneumonia in Feb 1935 during construction.
  30. Jerry Sloniger (10 June 2005). Flying Capone's Booze. iUniverse. pp. 1–13. ISBN 978-0-595-79266-5.
  31. "American airplanes: st - sz". Aerofiles.com. 2009-11-02. Retrieved 2011-04-08.
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