Ed Swearingen’s Mighty Missile

By: Tom Woodward

Ed Swearingen (1925-2014) designed fast airplanes, period, end of sentence. He designed the Metroliner and the SJ-30 jet, among others. His SJ30 jet, first demonstrated at the Paris Airshow in 1991, still holds speed records over three different courses. His design of the SX-300, a two passenger, retractable gear rocket ship, powered by a Lycoming O-540 is one of the fastest prop-driven kit airplanes ever built in numbers, though there weren’t all that many built. The FAA shows only 43 registered, though there are barely 30 some still flying today. Building time was about 5000 hours.

According to Rich Gonzalez, owner of SX-300 serial number 06, built in 1991 and sporting the Race number 33, there were “a little over 80 kits built but only 48 landing gear kits made before the company supplying the gears went out of business.” That effectively rendered several kits unbuildable, though the rights to build the gear for the SX-300 were purchased by Bill Johns -- who now provides them again. There have been more than a few crashes, the latest in July 5th of this year. Rich says it isn’t a tricky airplane to fly, but it has to be respected. The airplane is well built, and capable of 6+/-3G. The gear is hydraulically operated and has many moving parts with a piston that forces it towards the gear down position and hydraulics that retract it.

Rich had his mechanic install a nitrogen blow-down system that several owners have modified their airplanes with. The latest crash was due to the gear folding on takeoff, though whether this was due to a mechanical issue or rough handling is yet unknown.

Rich Gonzalez raves about the flying characteristics of the SX-300 and says it flies very similar in speed and handling to one of his other airplanes (of which he has four), a Piper Aerostar; Fast, slippery and not to be manhandled. Rich says, “Getting slow is the biggest problem. I think the thing flies straight. I use 110 knots on final with 100 knots over the fence”. He says, “The stall is pretty violent, and it stalls clean at 97 knots”, likening it to his Aerostar’s approach speeds. He regularly flies out of a 3600’ strip, and says with short field landing techniques and some moderate braking he can get it stopped in about 1800 feet. Flying often is the best way to stay current, and Rich flies it to work almost every day, accumulating about 300 hours per year.

Rich wanted something that could fly over 200 mph, and was still efficient. Rich reports, “I took off from LGB, climbed to 17,000’ and pressed Direct to 0TX1 in Texas”. He arrived in 3:48 using 47 gallons at 249 knots burning 12 GPH.

Entry price for a SX-300 can run from 250K, to over 300K, if you can find one for sale. Insurance for Rich is only $2500/year, which seems very reasonable for a plane of that value. A check out and annual currency in the SX-300 is required for those rates.

(Images provided by the author)

FMI: www.sx300group.org