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| Saab 37 Viggen, Saab 35 Draken, Saab JAS 39 Gripen |
The Saab 37 Viggen was built from 1970 to 1990. It was the first canard design produced in quantity. The Viggen was also the most advanced fighter jet in Europe until the introduction of the Panavia Tornado into operational service in 1981.
Viggen has two major meanings in Swedish. The first meaning translates as "thunderbolt". Traditionally the word refers to prehistoric stone axes found in the ground during the viking age. The scandinavian people of this period thought that these axes had been sent down to earth by the lightning strikes of the god Thor when he hunted giants with his war hammer Mjölnir. The second meaning refers to "vigg", the Swedish word for the tufted duck. This is in reference to its canard configuration as "canard" is French for duck.
The Saab 35 Draken (Dragon) was manufactured between 1955 and 1974. It was the first fully supersonic aircraft to be deployed in Western Europe and the first aircraft to do the Cobra maneuver.
Production of the Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin) started in 1987 and is ongoing. The aircraft has a top speed of Mach 2.0.
Text paraphrased from Wikipedia articles.
Via daily timewaster
2 comments:
How did Saab manage to create such gorgeous , iconic aircraft , and such unattractive automobiles ?
I've wondered the same thing and now that I've let it stew for another day, I still don't have an answer, not even a glib quip. An enterprising soul could turn this question into a doctoral thesis.
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