Supermarine Type 545

The Supermarine Type 545 was a British supersonic jet fighter project from the early 1950s, designed to give the Royal Air Force a transonic aircraft while the next generation of supersonic fighters was being developed. Supermarine used its Swift programme as the starting point, changing to a crescent wing and a more powerful reheated Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet, and claimed the aircraft could reach Mach 1.3. A contract for two prototypes was placed in February 1952, but by the time the first was completed the project had become politically unpalatable because of the Swift's shortcomings, and the contract was cancelled on 25 March 1956 before the aircraft ever flew. The single airframe was given to the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield as an instructional aid and was scrapped in 1967.