Aviation Classics 16 SAAB preview

The six Saab SK 60s of the Swedish Air Force aerobatic flight ’Team 60’ in arrow formation during training. Luigino Caliaro

Contents

8 Saab – the genesis of a giant 18 The first Saab 24 The Swedish Mosquito 28 Innovative and unusual

40 Perspectives – Saab, Sweden and the Swedish air Force in the Cold War 44 Swept wing success – Saab 29 Tunnan

34 The Saab 90 Scandia

52 Systematic elegance – Saab 32 Lansen

36 Light delight – Saab 91 Safir

60 Supersonic double delta – Saab 35 Draken

38 Survival through diversity – the first Saab cars

70 Twin jet trainer – Saab 105 74 Swedish style

Thank you This issue could not have been produced without the help of Lars Jansson, Bengt Littke and Per-Olof Eldh of Saab and Per Pellebergs, Stig Holmström, Börje Fondén and Kenneth Nilsson

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Editor:

Designer: Reprographics:

Tim Callaway editor@aviationclassics.co.uk Dan Savage Luigino Caliaro, Frans Dely, Keith Draycott, Constance Redgrave Charlotte Pearson Jonathan Schofield

Group production editor:

Tim Hartley

Publisher: Contributors:

Divisional advertising manager: Sandra Fisher sfisher@mortons.co.uk Advertising sales executive: Stuart Yule syule@mortons.co.uk 01507 529574

80 Loud and proud – Saab 37 Viggen

Subscription manager: Newstrade manager: Marketing manager: Production manager: Publishing director: Commercial director: Business development director: Managing director:

Paul Deacon Steve O’Hara Charlotte Park Craig Lamb Dan Savage Nigel Hole Terry Clark Brian Hill

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90 Piston trainer – Saab MFI-17 Supporter 94 Airliner and AEW – Saab 340 and 2000 102 Fifth generation fighter – Saab JAS 39 Gripen 110 Into the future 112 The Flygvapenmuseum

© 2012 Mortons Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage retrieval system without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN No 978-1-906167-63-9

126 Survivors Having trouble finding a copy of this magazine? Why not just ask your local newsagent to reserve you a copy

Saab JAS 39A Gripen 39-131 was the first Gripen to reach 2000 flying hours while on the strength of the F 7 Wing at Såtenäs, seen here in formation with a JAS 39B from the same unit. Luigino Caliaro

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Saab 5

Northern lights W

elcome to the first of what I hope will be a succession of different Aviation Classics, one where we are not covering a single type of aircraft or an event, but instead studying the entire history of one of the great aircraft manufacturers. The choice of Saab for this first issue came about due to a number of factors.

Firstly, 2012 is the 75th Anniversary of the founding of what is now a world class giant of the aerospace industry, and secondly, on looking around, I could find very little that covered the history of the company and its highly original products, a situation I found odd. My interest in Saab and its aircraft began at an early age, when as a boy I built the Airfix kit of the mighty Viggen.

Placing it among the Phantom, Lightning and other types of its generation, two things became apparent, first of all this was a really big aircraft, and secondly, it didn’t look like anything else around, and indeed, still doesn’t.

I was struck by the individuality of it, and this is an impression that has stayed with me even as I have learned more about this company and the country where it was founded.

Sweden and Saab have a number of things in common, they are both defined by contrasts. Sweden is the third largest country in Europe, yet has a smaller population than Greater London. It is a fiercely neutral country, defending its right to stay out of other nations’ conflicts and remaining strictly

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non-combatant in the Second World War, yet at the height of the Cold War boasted the fifth largest air force in the world, one with capabilities and equipment standards few could match and none surpass.

Saab has built military aircraft from its formation, yet its prime ethos is purely defensive, a sincere wish that everyone should have the right to feel safe. Saab is a commercial company, but over 20% of its income is ploughed back into research and development and there is a massive investment in education throughout the country.

This company ethos is an echo from the nation’s history, from 1612 and a man called Axel Oxenstierna. He was Lord High Chancellor of Sweden and between 1612 and 1640 he oversaw what can only be called the modernisation of Sweden. Oxenstierna began the development of trade and industrial policies and developed a strong central administration, both local and national, that brought efficient organisation where before there had been chaos.

Part of this Government reform began at grass roots level, with the development of a system of higher education that allowed anyone, not just the sons of noblemen, to progress to high office. He saw education as the key to the development and the future of the nation; that people should be encouraged to think. Pope Urban VIII declared that Oxenstierna was one of the most excellent men the world had ever seen.

How then are the works of this man reflected in Saab and its ethos? Well, it too has organised much of the aerospace and defence industry of Sweden into an efficient core. It has encouraged education at every level, beginning with one of the first trade training apprenticeship schemes in the world. It certainly encourages people to think, as Börje Fondén told me when we were discussing the development of the Viggen.

He said: “We didn’t have 30 engineers working on the project; we had 30 inventors working on it! Inventions were allowed to work in our system, regardless of where they came from.”

This respect for the inventiveness of their staff has allowed Saab to develop some of the most high performance and ground breaking aircraft in the history of aviation, it has also gained the company a reputation as a world leader in aerospace technology.

In 75 years, a company that began working alone due to political circumstance is now working both in and with 30 other countries across the globe. What it has produced in this time has been of unrivalled quality and innovation. I look forward to seeing what they achieve next, because no doubt it will be both original and surprising.

Happy birthday Saab!

All best, Tim

The first Saab A single engined bomber, dive bomber and reconnaissance aircraft

SAAB had been formed on April 2, 1937, at Trollhättan by the Bofors group. In 1938, ASJA had begun design work on the L-10, a multi-purpose single engined militar y aircraft at its factor y at Linköping. When ASJA and Saab underwent a complete reorganisation and merger in March 1939, the new company’s first aircraft, which had been the L-10, became the Saab 17.

T

he Air Board offered a new competition to ASJA and SAAB in early 1938 to design a reconnaissance aircraft for operation by the air force. A particular requirement was good visibility from the observer’s cockpit.

The new aircraft was to have a maximum speed of at least 250mph (400kph). The joint company run by both Saab and ASJA, AFF, produced a design for a high wing aircraft with an undercarriage that retracted into stub wings mounted low in the fuselage. These stub wings proved aerodynamically problematical, so a fixed undercarriage was substituted, resulting in an aircraft not

Saab 17s under construction at Trollhättan. Saab

unlike Westland’s Lysander. Needless to say, this aircraft, known as the F-1, stood little chance of meeting the design criteria and was cancelled.

It was the cancellation of this project that increased the rivalry between Saab and ASJA and proved that collaborative efforts, no matter how desirable to the Swedish Government, were unlikely to succeed. ASJA would have been the company that actually built the F-1 had it gone forward, but its evaluation of the design and its likely performance revealed its shortcomings.

ASJA entered its own design into the competition, known as the L-10, and it succeeded where the F-1 could not.

This served only to increase the mistrust between the two companies. At this point, one of the most important men in the founding of Saab took a hand. Torsten Nothin was a former member of parliament and chairman of the joint company AFF. At the December 1938 board meeting, he introduced the view that the collaborative company was not the right way forward for any of the participants, and asked for suggestions as to how the situation could be resolved. These were received in January 1939 and after a series of negotiations, a complete restructuring of both ASJA and Saab resulted in a new single company emerging in March.

The cockpit of the Saab 17 offered superb views to both crew members. Saab

The new Saab was wholly owned by ASJ, the parent company of ASJA, and had its headquarters at Linköping. The Trollhättan factory was to be for production only, all design and development taking place at Linköping under the direction of managing director Ragnar Wahrgren. For his efforts to reach a workable solution and his far reaching vision of the needs of future aircraft production, Torsten Nothin was voted in as chairman of the board of the new Saab company.

As has already been mentioned, prior to these historic events ASJA had begun design work on the L-10 for the reconnaissance aircraft competition. This was a remarkably advanced and adaptable design for the time, and was to be the beginning of Saab’s reputation for innovation and unusual design features. Firstly, ASJA had convinced the Air Board that if the new aircraft could function as a bomber and a reconnaissance aircraft for the army and navy, then it would save a great deal of money.

Crews would only have to be trained on one type for both missions and there would be tremendous economy of scale to be achieved in having one set of spares for both forces while the aircraft was in service. There would also be a saving in production costs as more of the new design would be built for both roles, thus bringing down the unit cost.

These suggestions were applauded by the Air Board which immediately understood their advantages.

For the L-10, the Linköping design team decided on an internal bomb bay in the fuselage resulting in a mid-wing design. This did not give the observer the perfect view from the aircraft, but it was decided that the advantages in the multi-role design far outweighed this one disadvantage. The aircraft was designed for dive as well as level bombing and featured an innovative dive brake. The main undercarriage retracted upwards and backwards where it was enclosed by a large fairing. This meant that there were no bays in the wing to accommodate the undercarriage, increasing the structural strength of the centre section. These fairings also made excellent aerodynamic brakes when the undercarriage was lowered in a dive.

To give the aircraft as much flexibility of operation as possible, it was designed from the outset with a retractable ski undercarriage

An impressive line-up of Saab B17As, the nearest aircraft being equipped with underwing bomb racks. Saab

A cutaway of the Saab S 17BL reconnaissance version of the aircraft. Saab

option as well as a float design, both of which were interchangeable with the wheeled undercarriage. The Air Board reviewed the design and the engineering mock up that had been built, and on November 29, 1938, issued an order for two L-10 prototypes.

With the reorganisation of the two companies, the L-10 was later named the Saab 17 and work continued on the production of the two prototypes. However, the Second World War began on September 1, 1939, and was to delay the programme for a number of very different reasons. Firstly, the Swedish armed forces were desperately short of modern combat aircraft, so they were seeking supplies from all over the world. These aircraft were often supplied disassembled, so they required factory time to prepare.

Secondly, the supply of engines, parts, drawings and other critical components from manufacturers abroad became nigh on impossible to acquire. Lastly, experienced engineers and draughtsmen were in very short supply. By 1940, Saab had only two thirds of the required number of these critical workers employed on the new aircraft. Indeed, the full complement of 600

trained engineers was not to be met until 1943. This situation was further exacerbated by the fact the Saab 17 was the first all metal, stressed skin aircraft designed in Sweden, increasing the pressure on the new company.

Then, on November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Finland requested Sweden’s help in acquiring new aircraft, bringing them in from orders placed abroad, assembling and equipping them, and then delivering them to Finland. Saab assembled 44 Brewster Buffaloes and 17 Fiat G.50s for Finland, taking up most of the production capability at Trollhättan among other factories during the Winter War. When Germany invaded Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940, Sweden suddenly found herself cut off from the world. As part of Swedish efforts to assist Finland in the Winter War, a force of Swedish Air Force crewed Gloster Gladiators and Hawker Harts, or J 8s and B 4s as they were known in Swedish service, had been sent to Finland. Known as Flygflottilj 19 or F 19, this force was to destroy 12 Soviet aircraft and attack a wide variety of ground targets during the conflict. ➤ Saab 19

Since Germany was acting in concert with the Soviet Union under the terms of the nonaggression pact of August 1939, they now viewed Sweden with suspicion and withdrew all supplies of aircraft and other weapons while the war in Finland continued. On the Allied side, initial orders from the United States for hundreds of aircraft like the Seversky P-35 and Vultee P-66 Vanguard were approved. Neither Britain nor the United States were willing to supply more modern types, especially fighters, and the US Government had decided to concentrate on supplying Britain and France as its priority for new aircraft.

Then Sweden’s neutral position and ability to withstand pressure from the Soviet Union and Germany were called into question in the US. Worse was to come, as on July 2, 1940, defence exports to Sweden from the US were prohibited and all stocks of aircraft awaiting supply were confiscated. With the aircraft also went the spare engines that had been ordered.

Negotiations to build the Pratt and Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp and R-2800 Double Wasp under licence in Sweden were also broken off.

Only Italy had aircraft it was willing to supply, but these were not up to current operational standards. Suddenly Sweden found herself critically short of modern aircraft and engines, surrounded by hostile and potentially hostile forces and abandoned by the Allies.

A superb plan view of the B 17A.This aircraft was formerly SE-BYH, one of the aircraft supplied for use as a civilian target tug.

Lugino Caliaro

An Ethiopian Air Force pilot with his Saab B 17A. Saab 20 aviationclassics.co.uk

The Saab S 17BS floatplane version was used by both the Swedish Air Force and navy. Saab

As a historical footnote to this situation, if you have ever wondered why Sweden has remained completely self sufficient in aircraft and weapons production, building up the industry and technology base to a point where she is now a major exporter of world class aircraft and systems, this shoddy treatment of the country by the Allies is the starting point.

Self sufficiency was the only course of action left open to Sweden if she was to maintain her neutral position. Given the situation, Sweden’s reaction for the remainder of the Second World War was one of resilience to all pressure and coercion from both Allied and Axis Governments.

To return to the story of the Saab 17, work continued on the prototypes around all the other rushed activities the wartime situation created. On May 18, 1940, the first of the two prototypes made its maiden flight at Linköping in the hands of test pilot Captain Claes Smith. The first aircraft was powered by a Bristol Mercury XII built under licence in Sweden by Nohab. This produced 860hp, which was changed in the second aircraft to a 1065hp Pratt and Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp.

The flight test programme was not without incident, on the first flight the cockpit canopy blew open in the airflow. Smith held onto it for as long as he could, but needed both hands for the landing. It detached and landed in a meadow where it was later recovered. A more serious problem was found during the spinning trials. The engine often stalled on spin entry and recovery was found to be difficult, requiring full control deflection.

Attaching lengths of wool to the tailplane enabled an observer aboard an accompanying aircraft to record the turbulent airflow over the rudder, the problem being solved by the addition of a small fin under the rear fuselage. Other than these two small problems, the new aircraft proved to be a reliable and steady performer, possessed of pleasant handling and an ease of maintenance that drew favourable comment from service personnel.

The bomb load of the Saab 17 was 1540lb (700kg) which could be made up of a wide variety of weapons. The largest that could be accommodated in the internal bomb bay was a 525lb (250kg) bomb. Three 8mm machine guns were fitted, two in the wings and one on a flexible mount in the rear observer’s cockpit. One of the great innovations developed while the Saab 17 was in production was a new ‘toss’ bombsight, the BT 2, which had been developed by two Saab engineers to solve the problem of aiming bombs during a dive.

Erik Wilkenson and Torsten Faxén essentially created a one of the first mechanical computers in the world, enabling crews to deliver bombs with tremendous accuracy in relatively shallow dives of between 20 and 30 degrees. Aside from the accuracy the sight gave the crews, it also meant they could remain at medium altitude, minimising their exposure to ground fire. The sight also provided for automatic separation between the aircraft and the bomb on release. Postwar, this sight was developed into an electromechanical version called the BT 9 which was used on later Saab aircraft and sold to France, Denmark and Switzerland. It was also produced under licence in the United States and was the first Saab system to be exported.

On December 1, 1941, the first production Saab 17 took to the air, the first of 324 built, 57 at Linköping, the remainder at Trollhättan.

Deliveries to the Swedish forces were to continue until September 16, 1944, of which 133 were B 17As, 114 were B or S 17Bs, 38 of which were delivered as seaplanes designated the S 17BS, followed by the last model, 77 of the B 17C. The major difference between the three versions was the engine, the 17A being fitted with the Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp, the 17B with the Bristol Mercury XXIV and the 17C with the Piaggio PXI. To explain the Swedish military designation system, the first letter designates the role of the aircraft, B being bomber, S for reconnaissance, J for

Three Saab B 17As of the Ethiopian Air Force. Saab

Saab b 17a SpecificationS ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯ ❯

Restored to flying condition is Saab B 17A 17239. Lugino Caliaro

❯

fighter, SK for trainer and A for ground attack.

This was followed by the number identifying the aircraft type, then the letter of the version.

The Saab 17 proved to be both popular and incredibly reliable in service. In Swedish Air Force service it equipped six wings in its bomber and reconnaissance roles, F 2, F 3, F 4, F 6, F 7, and F 12. It was only retired as a front line aircraft with the advent of jet aircraft, the last leaving service in 1948. As the Second World War ended, 15 B 17Cs were allocated to the Danish Brigade, made up of expatriate Danish military personnel and first formed in Sweden in 1943.

This force was intended to deploy to Denmark in the event the German forces there refused to accept the surrender, but this eventuality never arose. The Saab 17 got a new lease of life in 1947, when the first of three batches of 47 B 17As were supplied to the Ethiopian Air Force, a service that had been formed with the assistance of Swedish Air Force personnel at the request of Emperor Haile Selassie. The tough and reliable Saab 17 was ideally suited to

The Saab S 17B preserved in the Flygvapenmuseum at Malmen. Saab

operations over the massive and harsh country, and was to remain in service long after more advanced aircraft were intended to replace it. The last were not retired from front line service in Ethiopia until 1968, and a small number were kept on to perform secondary duties into the 1970s, a remarkable record by any standards.

The last Saab 17s flying on operations in Europe were used as target tugs. In Sweden, the first of 20 B 17A aircraft were released onto the civil register in 1951 for use by two companies, Svensk Flygtjänst and AVIA, who supplied target towing facilities to the Swedish military. One of these aircraft was sold to the Austria Air Force in 1957 to fulfil the same role there, followed by two more to the Finnish Air Force in 1959 and 1960.

Considering this was the first aircraft designed and produced by the new Saab company, and the first advanced all metal aircraft produced in Sweden, its track record is exemplary, and set the performance and reliability standards for which Saab is rightly still famous today. ■ Words: Tim Callaway

Span – 45ft 1in (13.7m) Length – 32ft 2in (9.8m) Height – 13ft 1in (4.0m) Wing area – 307sq ft (28.5sq m) Empty weight – 5732lb (2600kg) Loaded weight – 8752lb (3970kg) Maximum speed – 270mph (435kph) Cruising speed – 242mph (390kph) Approach speed – 78mph (125kph) Initial rate of climb – 1968ft/min (10m/sec) Ceiling – 28,500ft (8700m) Range – 1120 miles (1800km) Engine – 1 x Pratt and Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp of 1200hp Armament – 3 × 8mm ksp m/22F machine guns (2 x fixed forward mounted in wings, 1 x on flexible mount in rear cockpit). Up to 1540lb (700kg) of bombs.

The pilot’s cockpit of the B 17A. Lugino Caliaro

A close up of the main undercarriage with its large fairings, used as dive brakes. Lugino Caliaro

The restored Saab B 17A in ight with the undercarriage in dive brake position. Luigino Caliaro