The Saab 210 Draken ("the dragon”) is a scaled-down testbed for the double-delta concept in the development of the J 35 fighter. Although never officially named anything but Draken by Saab, it soon became known by its unofficial nickname Lilldraken (”the Little Dragon”) after the first flight of the prototype of the Saab 35. Its first flight was on 21 January 1952.
J35D N35350 former Swedish Air Force Fv35350 at McClellan Air Park, California
ReplyDeleteJ35F N543J former Swedish Air Force Fv35543 at McClellan Air Park, California
Swedish fighter planes are fascinating. And formidable for such a small country. They'd have given good account for themselves in a war. With the important exception of going with the Hughes AIM-4 Falcon for the J35 Draken. That was a dog.
ReplyDeleteWonder what the "over the fence" speed was for these things....
ReplyDeleteDuring the war many German and Allied aircraft went to Sweden if they could not safely return to base. Many, of course, were bombers. By the rules, both the plane and crew were interned for the duration. The Germans were thrown into dungeons and jails, but the Allied crews were usually interned with Swedish families. I'll be there are some veeerrryyyy interesting stories to be had.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, the Swedes had quite the leg up in aircraft development, and many of the fighters and bombers were abandoned by the warring nations at war's end. There were refurbished and became the origin for Scandinavian Airlines. Or so I have been told.
search term: Rutan Aircraft Factory
ReplyDeletevariviggen
Not sure about this Saab prototype, but I do recall that Rutan’s Variviggen won every spot landing competition it ever entered - it basically floated along in ground effect until it dropped on the “X” marking the landing target.
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