Svenskt Flyghistoriskt Forum

Jag har från en internationell besökare av vår hemsida och forum blivit ombedd att hjälpa honom lägga ut nedanstående frågor. Vänligen svara i första hand på engelska, även om Du inte skriver perfekt engelska så är Ditt svar välkommet.
/Sven-Erik

My name is Matej Furda and I am aviation historian with the specialization in bizare, unconventional, prototype and unrealized projects. I want to ask you, if you are able to help me with the searching for the information/3 views/drawings/anything else about the following projects. Alternatively if you are able to redirect me to some person, who can. All material I want to use for the noncommercional purposes – the propagation of the european aerospace industry. Primarily in our Secretprojects forum http://www.secretprojects.co.uk and also in my homepage http://www.hitechweb.genezis.eu.

My primary interest is SAAB aircraft named U-plan with the 13xx designation, proposed in the era between 1952 and 1955. It should be variable geometry turborocket submersible Mach 2 fighter. So far, it is the only submersible plane, proposed in Europe (except Soviet union/Russia).

If it is possible, I would like to see also other projects with the lower priority, such as:

SAAB 1325 – Draken replacement fighter with Gyron jets

SAAB 1350 and 1352 – modifications of the 1325

SAAB 1376 – A36 nuclear tactical bomber

SAAB 1377 – A36 with the dorsal intake

SAAB 1410 – STOVL Mach 2 fighter

SAAB 1421 – Draken replacement Mach 2,6 fighter

SAAB 1536 – VTOL Viggen

Thanks in advance.
Best regards,
Ing. Matej Furda
hitechweb@genezis.eu

Lyfter upp denna fråga, är det verkligen ingen som kan svara på en enda av frågorna?
Eller var önskemålet om svar på engelska för mycket, så skriv på svenska.
Hoppas någon med Saabkunskaper kan ge något.

/Sven-Erik

Dear Matej,

It seems some knowledge about Saab projects and ideas have spread in various magazines and other publications through the years. It is said that Swedes are not good at showing pride in themselves and their products, and this may be true also for large industries that seem to have a tradition not to tell of the ideas that did not materialize. I know of no real "deep" work on Saab aircraft and unrealized projects but there are plenty of good type monograhies by enthusiasts/historians where you may find information of the alternatives that were not realized.

I guess you have found the site of Urban Fredriksson http://www.canit.se/~griffon/ where you find some information of Saab aircraft that "never were".

Another source of information could be persons active in the Linköping Saab veteran club http://www.saabveteran.se/. Their publications does not give details of individual aircraft projects however.

The best overview I know is a booklet by the once Saab aerodynamicist Krister Karling who 7 years ago published a small booklet "Saab 37 Viggen. Utvecklingen av ett nytt enhetsflygplan för det svenska flygvapnet 1952-1971". ISBN 91-631-2395-9. About all the ideas that led forward to the Viggen; many very different configurations and ideas studied. About 90 pages. Yoy could contact him; his phone and address are easy to find by googling.

What Krister K tells is not easy to sum up for any reader of the booklet because of the many very differing concepts studied and one has to know which concepts were the most important. Then one has to know Swedish and a bit of aerodynamics.

I have put on the web two scannings (and reduced the resolution!) from this booklet I made some years ago for some now forgotten purpose. This shows what you could expect in the form of three view drawings or simple illustrations:

http://larssundin.ownit.nu/A_36_1300-76.jpg (There is also a 3-view which shows the variant with the dorsal intake but here the special weapons bay is missing - it is perhaps not really the corresponding alternative after all! One has to be careful when assessing the simple 3-views.)

http://larssundin.ownit.nu/Saab_1410_Lakomaa.jpg

I am not familiar with the Saab project numbering system - but there are many more projects depicted in the booklet than you mention in your input and some are most probably in principle the ones you are looking for.

Good luck!

Lars Sundin

Matej Furda från Slovakien skriver i ett mail:

I currently finished the Hitechweb update about the SAAB UAV and UCAV projects. Probably it will be interesting for your forum members. As usual, machine translation of the text is also available:

http://www.hitechweb.genezis.eu/UCAV04.htm

Also if someone has something to add, I will gladly extend the article.

/Sven-Erik