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parachutes]] The De Havilland DH.108 "Swallow" was an Experimental Aircraft designed in October 1945 . A Flying Wing , it was designed to evaluate Swept-wing handling characteristics at subsonic speeds. DEVELOPMENT The first DH.108 Prototype , ''TG283'', utilizing the De Havilland Vampire fuselage and a 43° swept wing flew on May 15, 1946 . It was capable of only 280 mph (451 km/h) and was lost in a crash on May 1 , 1950 . The second prototype, ''TG306'', with a 45° swept wing with automatic leading-edge slats and a De Havilland Goblin 3 Turbojet flew in June 1946 . It was expected to break the air speed record of the day, 616 mph (991 km/h). Unfortunately, on September 27, 1946, the Airframe suffered a catastrophic Structural Failure at Mach 0.9. Pilot Geoffrey De Havilland Jr , son of de Havilland owner-designer Geoffrey De Havilland was killed in the accident. ''VW120'', the third and final prototype with a more pointed nose and aerodynamic canopy first flew on July 24, 1947 . On April 12, 1948 this aircraft established a new world speed record on a 100 km (62 mi) circuit of 974.02 km/h (604.98 mph). Then, on September 9, 1948 it exceeded the speed of sound in a shallow dive from 12,195 m (40,000) ft to 9,145 m (30,000) ft. The first British aircraft to exceed Mach 1, the DH.108 was also the first jet-powered aircraft in the world to do so, as the earlier Bell X-1 and Douglas Skyrocket were Rocket -powered. The third prototype was also lost in a crash. SPECIFICATIONS (DH.108 3RD PROTOTYPE) General characteristics
Performance
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