de Havilland D.H.108  Swallow   VW120

                                  

                                   This was the aircraft which established a new Worl Air Speed record of  974.02
                                    km/h (604.98 mph) on a 100 km (62 mi) circuit on 12 April 1948.  The following
                                    year it exceeded the speed of sound in a shallow dive from 12,195 m (40,000) ft to
                                    9,145 m (30,000) ft.   Three prototype Swallows (not D.H.'s official name) were
                                    built to evaluate swept-wing handling characteristics at low and high subsonic speeds.
                                    The second of these was destroyed in a crash which killed Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr,
                                    son of the company's founder, while the machine above was lost in February 1950 near
                                    Brickhill, Bucks, when the aircraft's oxygen system failed, incapacitating the pilot, S/L
                                    Stuart Muller-Rowland, who plunged to his death.  .