Bruce Kaufman (left) bought this restored
and souped up 1946 GC-1B Globe Swift
on the advice of his flight instructor,
Matt McDaniel of Progressive Aviation
in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

Enlarge Photo

Photo: Lane Wallace

I have only ever fallen in love with one automobile in my life. It was a Porsche 356 Speedster that had just come out of the restoration shop. Even back in 1991 or so, when I saw that particular Porsche (stunning metallic silver with a navy blue top, cream interior and gold accents), the 356 was far from the highest performance car on the market. But it wasn't the performance that set my heart aflutter. It was the classic beauty of what was, clearly, a timeless piece of mechanical artistry.

I had that sense all over again at AirVenture this past week, when I wandered over to the show plane parking area and saw a mirror-sharp, polished silver 1946 Globe Swift (or CG-1B, as the factory knew it) sitting on the line. Like the Porsche before it, it was silver with blue accents — although I discovered later that the accents were actually Corvette blue, not Porsche. But it even had the gold Porsche "Speedster" logo on the side, just behind the engine cowling. And it was breathtaking.

The Globe Swift is, in my humble opinion, one of the most beautiful examples of mechanical artistry ever produced by an aviation company, up there with the Waco, the Cessna 170 and (in the military category) the P-51 Mustang and the F-86 Sabre. It looks exactly like what it was designed to be: a 2-seat sports car with wings, with clean lines, retractable gear, and even (in its original iteration) an instrument panel that brought to mind a classic sports car dash.

A closer look at this particular Swift, however, showed some distinct improvements from the original. The classic airframe lines were still there, but had been cleaned up considerably — rather like how the P-51D differed from the original P-51A. The gear doors and wheels, in fact, had been redesigned to be smaller and more streamlined, and the original turtledeck canopy (similar to the P-51A design) had been replaced with a bubble canopy, like the P-51D. The Globe yokes had also been replaced with more sporty dual control sticks.

Less visible from the outside was the fact that this plane was a "Super Swift" — a little hot rod with a 210-hp IO-360 GAMI fuel injector-equipped engine replacing its original C-125 engine. But the most striking change in the aircraft's interior — aside from its pristine leather seats with custom accents — was its panel, which looked more akin to a Cirrus SR-22 than anything parked in the classic show plane rows. It had an Aspen Avionics Primary Flight Display (PFD) and Multi-Function Display (each of which fits in the same space as two round gauges, stacked vertically). To the right of those was an iPad-sized Garmin 696 portable GPS, which snapped neatly into a panel mount (and removed easily for use in the owner's other airplane). And to the right of that was a JPI EDM 930 electronic engine instrument and monitoring display.

There are plenty of glass panels around these days, even at Oshkosh. And there are plenty of beautifully restored classic aircraft still proudly flying the skies. But most classic aircraft owners opt to keep the classic panels, adding at most a small, portable Garmin 295, 496 or similar GPS for cross-country navigation help. So finding such a beautifully restored classic with such a thoroughly modern panel was a bit of a surprise. How did such a mix of eras come about?

"I didn't want to destroy a classic, but the plane was already so modified when I bought it," explained its current owner, Bruce Kaufman. "And when I fly, people don't see the interior. The interior is all for me. And I wanted to fly safely and save weight."

The fact that Kaufman's other plane is a Cirrus may help explain his preference for glass, although his particular SR-22 was one of the early "six-pack" versions with round dials instead of a PFD. But interestingly enough, he ended up with a classic Swift because he'd had dreams of buying the Cirrus Jet. Which makes more sense than one might think at first pass.

Matt McDaniel, the flight instructor who checked Kaufman out in the tailwheel Swift, told Kaufman that if he really wanted to fly the jet, insurance companies were going to require him to have a lot more high-performance time than just his SR-22 hours. And a commercial rating wouldn't hurt, either.

You can't get a commercial rating in a fixed-gear airplane, so McDaniel started looking around for a good complex trainer that would give Kaufman the kind of time that would make him more prepared for flying the sporty, personal Cirrus jet. And the Swift — and this particular 210-hp Swift in particular — seemed a perfect solution.

When Kaufman bought the airplane, in 2007, it hadn't flown in 30 years. But two previous owners had put a lot of time and money into a careful and thorough restoration of the plane. Fred Henry had spent 10 years taking it from a basket case to the pristine beauty it is today, adding the bubble canopy, control sticks, new wheels, paint — and even adding the Porsche "Speedster" logo on the side. Ted Williams, its most recent owner, had added the bigger engine, but had left the interior unfinished.

Consequently, when Kaufman bought it, the interior was a bit of a blank canvas. So he decided to remake it from scratch … making the decision to go "modern" easier. The new panel also makes the aircraft IFR-certified, which Kaufman likes because Racine, Wisconsin, where he lives, gets "a lot of fog that's very thin, but which traps you in if you can't file [an instrument flight plan] to get out."

Timing was also ideal. Aspen Avionics was in the process of certifying its avionics products when Kaufman bought the Swift. So he was able to get Aspen to simply include the Swift on its list of applicable aircraft when it got its certification — something the company might not have done otherwise, because there are so few Swifts flying, and it's such an old airplane. That made the approval process for Kaufman's configuration (which was done by Skycom Avionics in Waukesha, WI) much easier. It also means that other Swift owners can also add Aspen equipment to their panels, if they so choose (I came across one other Swift owner at AirVenture who'd installed an Aspen display, but there may be more out there.)

But that also raises an interesting question. There were only about 1,500 Swifts built, and Swift pilots tend to see themselves as "caretakers" of the planes and their heritage, rather than mere owners. So I asked Kaufman how other Swift owners had reacted to his hybrid design. "They loved it," he said, adding, "They also knew the plane had already had a lot of modifications to it, so that helped."

It also undoubtedly helped that every one of the Swift's owners, from Fred Henry to Ted Williams to Bruce Kaufman, had done a first-rate job at whatever changes they made. The result is a remarkably lovely combination of classic beauty and modern convenience that presents a noteworthy road map of how to upgrade a classic without losing its artistry or appeal.

In fact, Kaufman says, he's only heard one complaint from another Swift owner. What was the gripe? Kaufman grinned. "One guy said, 'We're now looking at the first $200,000 Swift.'"

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