It might have been for a drinking water supply for something like a York which had a 13 1/2 gallon tank for that purpose. The text says that the capillery pipe has been cut off which suggests the instrument would have been fairly close to the tank it was reading, ie in a galley. Against my own argument is the high reading shown on the gauge, I would think a water tank would only need ten or so pounds to feed a tap, not forty or fifty.

Richard

Other than the colour scheme it looks much more like a Salmson than a 1 1/2 Strutter especially the stringers that form the rounded fuselage.

Richard

The value of any static airframe is dictated by several factors including its rareity, condition, historic significance, location, size, wow factor and in some cases potential for return to flight.
I would suggest that this Swift falls short on virtually all of these counts, even its size precludes it being moved whole.
If it were available for free then perhaps it could be dismantled, conserved and stored by the IWM/RAFM for the future when its value and or significance had risen.
But with the current price tag its future looks a little bleak.

Richard

Just bolt the crankshaft to the firewall and the propeller to the crankcase!!!!!!

Mike
The pylon mast appears to be a welded tubular steel stucture, similar to that used on the Thruxton HDW.1 Gadfly autogyro. Time frame would be about right I would think and being an autogyro testing by driving up and down a runway would be likely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadfly_HDW.1
http://aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/thruxton_gadfly.php

Richard

What a ridiculous statement. One case of fuel starvation constitutes a “track record”?

And the time before, at Denham, was mishandling by the pilot in command, who incidentaly was a really nice chap, just made a mistake.

Richard