Saab 17
| Saab 17 | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Type: | Dive bomber , reconnaissance aircraft |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
May 18, 1940 |
| Commissioning: |
1942 |
| Number of pieces: |
325 |
The Saab 17 was a single-engine Swedish fighter aircraft made by Saab in 1940, which was used as a dive bomber and reconnaissance aircraft.
history
The project began at the end of the 1930s as the L 10 at ASJA , Aktiebolaget Svenska Järnvägsverkstädera (public limited company of the Swedish railway workshops), but continued as the Saab 17 after Saab took over the aircraft sector in 1938 . The wings have been redesigned to allow use as a dive bomber.
The first flight took place on May 18, 1940. On December 18, 1941, the first aircraft was delivered to the Swedish Air Force ( Flygvapnet ), and in 1942 it was put into service. With the advent of jet aircraft in 1947, the service with the Swedish Air Force ended. A total of 325 aircraft were built. The last machine (Fv 17368) was delivered on August 31, 1944.
construction
The middle decker could be equipped with wheels, skis or floats. In the versions with wheels and skis, the main landing gear could be retracted, in all of them also the tail wheel.
Versions
Three different variants of the aircraft were built:
- B 17A - 133 pieces, Pratt & Whitney R-1830-SC3G engine , 1065 PS (794 kW)
- B 17B - 115 pieces, Bristol Pegasus XXIV engine , 980 hp (731 kW)
- B 17C - 77 pieces, Piaggio P.XI to RC.400 , 1020 PS (761 kW)
use
Between 1951 and 1954, 19 aircraft were civilly registered in Sweden and used as target display machines, mostly by the operator Svensk Flygtjänst . Of these, two were sold to Finland and one to Austria, which were also used to represent aerial targets.
Users by country
-
Sweden : see above, under versions (1942 to 1954) -
Ethiopia : 46 B17C (1947 to 1968) -
Finland : 2 B17A as target tugs (1959 to 1960) -
Austria : 1 B17A as a target tug (1957 to 1963)
Danska Brigades
During the Second World War, 15 pilots on Saab 17 were trained in Sweden from 1943 to 1945 as part of the Danska brigades in exile . In 1945, 15 B 17Cs were loaned to the Danish Brigade and were ready on May 5, 1945 in the livery of the Danish Air Force to cross the Öresund from Helsingborg in Sweden to Helsingør in Denmark together with the other forces. The new Danish government, however, permanently refused permission to land the aircraft. The fully trained pilots and mechanics had to return to their home country by sea. The 15 prepared B 17Cs were offered by Sweden to the Danish government, but the latter was no longer interested.
Ethiopia
From 1947 to 1953, 46 aircraft were sold in three deliveries to the Ethiopian Air Force , which remained in service there until 1968. On the return flight from the first delivery, the Bristol 170 Freighter Mk XI of the Swedish charter airline Trafik-Turist-Transportflyg , which was supposed to bring home the personnel of the Swedish Air Force deployed in the transfer of the Saab 17, had an accident . Almost all people on board were killed when the machine was flown into the mountains about 14 kilometers south-southeast of Naples in this CFIT ( Controlled flight into terrain ) caused by pilot errors .
Austria
In 1957 the Austrian government bought a target display machine of the variant B 17A from the Swedish Svensk Flygtjänst . This enabled the restrictions of the surrender conditions to be circumvented, since the actually military machine was registered as a civilian.
Finland
In March 1960 the Finnish Air Force, also from Svensk Flygtjänst in Sweden, bought two B 17A target display machines. Both were irreparably damaged and scrapped in accidents in August 1960 and May 1961, respectively.
Incidents
From the first delivery in 1941 to the end of its use as an active combat aircraft in the Swedish Air Force in 1948, there were 63 total losses, in which 56 pilots and observers were killed. After that and up to the end of the mission in 1954, another 15 machines were lost, a total of 78. This corresponds to 24 percent of all machines built, a relatively low figure for the time.
Technical data (B 17A)
General data
- Crew: 2
- Length: 9.80 m
- Span: 13.70 m
- Height: 4.00 m
- Wing area: 28.5 m²
- Empty weight: 2600 kg
- Takeoff weight: 4200 kg
- Powerplant: a Pratt & Whitney-R-1830-SC3G 14-cylinder double radial engine, 794 kW (1065 PS)
power
- Top speed: 435 km / h
- Range: 1800 km
- Service ceiling: 8700 m
- Climb rate: 600 m / min
- Wing load: 139 kg / m²
- Power / mass: 220 W / kg
Armament
- two forward-firing 7.9 mm Bofors M / 22F machine guns
- a movable 7.9 mm Bofors M / 22 machine gun in the rear
- 500 kg bombs
Preserved copies
The only still airworthy B 17A is operated by the Flygvapenmuseum in Linköping . The aircraft was restored by Saab and the Swedish Air Force in the mid-1990s. On June 11, 1997, the B 17A Fv17239 took off on its renewed maiden flight.
There are a total of five surviving specimens, two each in Sweden and South Africa and one in Denmark.
See also
literature
- Bo Widfeldt, Åke Hall: Svenskt military flyg: Svenska militära flygplan och helikoptrar 1911–2005 . Air Historic Research AB, Nässjö 2005, ISBN 91-975467-1-2 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fpl 17 - Saabs första construction . Svensk Flyghistorisk Tidskrift, ISSN 1100-9837, June 2020 (Swedish), p. 7.
- ↑ Fpl 17 - Saabs första construction . Svensk Flyghistorisk Tidskrift, ISSN 1100-9837, June 2020 (Swedish), p. 8.
- ↑ Fpl 17 - Saabs första construction . Svensk Flyghistorisk Tidskrift, ISSN 1100-9837, June 2020 (Swedish), p. 6.
- ↑ Fpl 17 - Saabs första construction . Svensk Flyghistorisk Tidskrift, ISSN 1100-9837, June 2020 (Swedish), p. 8.
- ↑ Saab 17 i flygvapnet, Spaningsplan och dykbombflygplan - S17, B17 . Svensk Flyghistorisk Tidskrift, ISSN 1100-9837, June 2020 (Swedish), p. 14.
- ^ Accident report Bristol 170 SE-BNG , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on February 27, 2020.
- ↑ Vestkusten, November 27, 1947 (Swedish), accessed on 29 March 2017th
- ↑ Svenskt Flyghistoriskt Forum, 3rd photo (Swedish), accessed on February 27, 2020.
- ↑ Saab 17 i flygvapnet, Spaningsplan och dykbombflygplan - S17, B17 . Svensk Flyghistorisk Tidskrift, ISSN 1100-9837, June 2020 (Swedish), p. 15.