The hot-rodder of Beechcrafts

Ed Swearingen did not start with a clean sheet of paper. His company, founded in 1959 in San Antonio, Texas, made its name modifying other manufacturers’ aircraft, and its first own type, the SA26 Merlin, was built on Beechcraft foundations: a pressurised cabin grafted onto existing parts. The prototype Merlin IIA flew on 13 April 1965 with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprops, about fifteen months after Beech’s competing King Air, and the Garrett-powered Merlin IIB followed.

The Metro and the money

The big bet was the Metro, a stretched 19-seat commuter airliner that first flew on 26 August 1969. Developing it drained Swearingen of cash, and late in 1971 Fairchild bought 90 per cent of the company, renaming it Swearingen Aviation Corporation in 1972 with Ed Swearingen as chairman and 10 per cent shareholder. With Fairchild money the Metro went into service in 1972 and became a rival to the Beechcraft 1900 in the 19-seat market; Australia alone came to fly about a fifth of the world fleet.

The name that would not die

Metro production ran until 2001, with 703 long-fuselage Metros, Expediters, Merlin IVs and military C-26s plus about 350 short-fuselage Merlins — roughly 1,050 aircraft in all. Ed Swearingen resigned from Fairchild on 1 May 1982 and took his name back. His new venture’s SJ30 business jet was certified in 1996 and passed through Sino Swearingen and Emivest before surviving today as SyberJet.

工場

• San Antonio plant · San Antonio, Texas — Merlin and Metro production, taken over by Fairchild

人々

• Ed Swearingen · founder — Chairman under Fairchild from 1972; resigned 1 May 1982 and reacquired the Swearingen name