In 1913 railcar producer Södertelge Werkstäder opened an aviation department, and acquired licenses to build Farman pushers and Gnome engines. They built HF 22s and HF 23s, which they called SW 10 and 11 respectively, both equipped with 80hp Gnomes. Among the first customers was the painter Anders Zorn, who bought two HF 23s and donated one to the army and one to the navy. The naval version was supplied with floats - or slippers as the pilots called them - and was accepted by the navy as Flying Boat number 6. Based on drawings and some excellent images from Digitalmuseum I have built a 1/72 version of that machine in early 1915 livery.
Flying boat no 6 served extensively in the so called neutrality patrols until it crashed beyond repair in December 1916. The Farman was quickly taken out of front-line service by the warring nations, their slow velocity making them vulnerable, but as no one was shooting at them they served as the main workhorse of the Swedish marine throughout the war years, where their main tasks were to spot drifting mines and chase away intruding warships. At one point two unusually stubborn intruders were exchanging close-range fire in Swedish waters, and the flier eventually landed right between them and bade them to bugger off. The British and German ships both broke off in different directions. Although that would have made a nice diorama I did not manage to identify neither the plane nor the ships.
The navy liked the Farman enough to collect the wrecks of crashed Farmans and have the Torpedo Workshops puzzle together the remains into complete planes. Later they were re-equipped with stronger engines but they were never fast. They served all-year round, landing on the ice in the winters - the flat floats functioned just as well as skis.
An SW 11 on display at an unknown fair:
The model was built with styrene strip and sheet, various metal tubes and rods and wires, with a Gnome Lambda engine from small stuff models.
In 1914-1915 the Swedish air corps introduced underwing cockades in French fashion, along with a capital S, topped with a naval ensign on the rudder. The exact application varied, the Farmans typically had the cockade on the upper wing and the S:s on the lower, next to the aircraft pennant number. Flying boat no:6 had designated number 2.2.9:
