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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0759.PDF
May 7jth, 1948 SAAB FL1GH7 575 Current Swedish Civil and Military Designs : An Underground Factory By Wing Cdr. Maurice A. Smith, DJF.C. ALTHOUGH there is only one company in Sweden engaged on the production of aircraft, thecountry as a whole is very air conscious and has an efficient and well-equipped Air Forcewhich would be capable of giving a very good account of itself if provoked. Moreover, the SAAB Company of Linkoping and Trollhattan, to which reference is made, with the aid of Svenska Flygmotor Ab, who build aero engines, and a supporting industry, are able, as they proved during their period of isolation in the last war, to produce wholly Swedish aircraft. Those now in production are dependent on outside suppliers for certain instruments and special equipment only. Flight of April 30th, 1947, contained a review of SAAB designs up to that time; it is the intention here to bring the aircraft story up to date and to mention SAAB pro-, duction facilities, following a recent visit of inspection to aircraft factories in Sweden. Lin- koping is south-west of Stockholm, and Trollhattan is in the west below Lake Vanem, north of Gothenburg. Most important of several events now concerning the Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, to print the full name, is the order recently placed by A.B.A. Swedish Airlines for ten Scandia 24-32 passenger transports. The Scandia is a Dakota replacement and was designed most carefully to fulfil that purpose. It is probable that other European air- lines will now follow A.B.A.'s lead in ordering Scandias. The prototype, which has been under development for many months, after a first flight in 1946, has two Pratt and Whitney Twin-Wasp R-2000 engines. It has undergone several modi- fications during flight trials and in production form will be equipped with the more powerful P. and W. R-2180 engines. The Scandia already has a good all-round performance on the 1,450 h.p. engines, and an outstanding single-engine performance. With an additional 400 h.p. this will be quite exceptional, and more than adequate to meet I.C.A.O. requirements. Details of the Scandia, production of which has started at Lin- koping, will form the subject of a separate article. In the military field SAAB haw four designs of particular interest; there is the 21R, a new D.H. Goblin-powered jet fighter which first flew in March, 1947, and of which four prototypes have so far been built. This aircraft is a development of the Daimler-Bertz 605-powered 21 A, There are, however, many important differences in addition to the change of power unit from piston engine to jet, and it should be considered as a separate design. The last few of a medium- sized order for 2iAs are being completed at the present time at Trollhattan, and production of a batch of 2iRs has commenced. The actual change-over of power units from D.B./605 to D.H. Goblin proved to be a D URING a recent short visit to Sweden,the Assistant Editor of Flight was able to inspect that country's main aircraft and aero engine factories, and to examine and Jy two important products, the SAAB Scandia two-engined transport, and the 21R jet fighter. In addition, a visit was made to a Swedish Air Force squadron equipped with Vampires. The accompanying article is the first of a short series in which various aspects of Swedish aviation will be described.
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