Saab 29

Saab 29 Tunnan
Type:	Jet-powered fighter aircraft
Design country:	Sweden
Manufacturer:	Saab AB
First flight:	September 1, 1948
Commissioning:	May 10, 1951
Production time:	1950-1956
Number of pieces:	661

Austrian "Tonne" J 29F with engine

The Tunnan's RM2 engine, a de Havilland Ghost manufactured under license

The Saab 29 Tunnan ( German for  the ton ) was a single-jet fighter aircraft produced by the Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab in the immediate post-war period. The name "Tunnan" (Swedish for barrel , barrel ) is derived from the squat and somewhat bulbous appearance of the aircraft, which was reminiscent of a flying barrel. It was the first mass- produced fighter aircraft with swept wings in Europe after the Second World War . The first flight took place on September 1, 1948 by the British pilot Robert Moore.

history

In the spring of 1945, an employee of the Messerschmitt Works, who was carrying secret SS documents, was arrested while illegally crossing the German-Swiss border. In autumn 1945 Frid Wanström , Saab project manager, came to Switzerland and checked the documents there. He recognized their importance and began developing the Saab 29 based on it. The former Messerschmitt employee Hermann Behrbohm , who was employed by Saab in Linköping, supported him. The Messerschmitt project P.1101 served as the basis for the development .

A total of four prototypes were produced during the development phase.

construction

The Saab 29 is an all-metal, single-seat mid-decker powered by a jet engine . The wings are designed as swept wings and, from the E version, have a sawtooth with boundary layer fence , which made higher angles of attack possible. The chassis is retractable.

It was the first fighter of its kind in Western Europe and was similar in design to the German Messerschmitt P.1101 , the Soviet MiG-15 and the US F-86 . The compact appearance is due to the De Havilland Ghost engine with a centrifugal compressor .

In order to make the slow flight characteristics manageable, automatic slats made of light metal cast were attached to the wings, which were locked when the landing flaps were retracted. In the first prototype, the landing flaps extended over the entire length of the wing, with the ailerons also serving as landing flaps. From the second prototype, these functions were separated again. The sweep of the two-spar structure was 25 °; it consisted partly of the aluminum alloy 75S and was manufactured with countersunk rivets . The horizontal stabilizer, to which the elevator was attached, could be adjusted to trim from + 1 ° to −6 °.

For the safety of the pilot, an ejection seat developed by Saab was installed. The project manager at Saab was Lars Brising .

commitment

The operational designation was J 29 for the hunting variants (Swedish: " J akt") and S 29 for the reconnaissance variant (Swedish: " S paning"). On May 10, 1951, the first series machines were delivered to the F 13 squadron in Norrköping . In 1954 and 1955, the Saab 29 gained the world's attention when it succeeded in setting two world records - 977 km / h over a distance of 500 km and 900 km / h over a great circle distance of 1000 km.

Nine Saab J 29B and two S 29C were deployed during the United Nations Operation in Congo . From 1960, the Tunnan was replaced by the much more modern successor Saab 35 Draken . In addition to the prototypes, Saab built a total of 224 copies of the J 29A, 360 J 29B (many later modified to J 29E and J 29F) and 76 machines of the reconnaissance version S 29C.

export

The only export customer of the model was the Austrian army . Between 1960 and 1962, the Alpine country took over a total of 30 used Saab 29Fs in two lots of 15 aircraft each and operated them until 1973.

variants

Sectional drawing of the E variant

Cockpit of a SAAB J 29F Tunnan

The following variants were produced:

• Saab J 29A , fighter plane
• Saab J 29B , fighter plane
• Saab S 29C , reconnaissance aircraft with seven cameras
• Saab J 29D , J 29B equipped with an afterburner, samples only
• Saab J 29E , fighter plane
• Saab J 29F , fighter aircraft, converted Saab J 29B with Swedish afterburner

Users

•  Austria
•  Sweden
•  UN (operation in the Congo by the Swedish Air Force )

Technical specifications

Parameter	Data Saab J 29B
crew	1
length	10.23 m
span	11.00 m
height
Wing area
Wing extension
Empty mass
Max. Takeoff mass
Top speed	1035 km / h
Service ceiling	13,500 m
Range
Engines	1 × de Havilland Ghost with 22.26  kN

Armament

Guns integrated in the fuselage

• 4 × 20 mm automatic cannon Hispano-Suiza 804 (Mk. V or Akan m / 47C) with 180 rounds of ammunition

Ordnance up to 1000 kg at eight external load stations

Air-to-air guided missile

• 2 × RB 24 (Robotsystem 24, Swedish license production of the Ford AIM-9B "Sidewinder") - infrared controlled short-range air-to-air guided missile

Air-to-air unguided missiles

• 4 × launch rails with 3 × unguided air-to-air missiles each 75 mm (2.95 inch)

Unguided air-to-surface missiles

• 4 × launch rails, each with 2 × unguided air-to-surface missiles 80 mm (3 inch)
• 14 × unguided M60 anti-tank missiles 135 mm (5.7 inch)
• 14 × unguided M50 air-to-surface missiles 150 mm (5.9 inch)
• 4 × launch rails, each with an anti-ship missile 180 mm (7.2 inch)

Unguided bombs

• 4 × free fall bombs (125 kg or 275 lb)
• 2 × napalm bombs (filled 500 liter additional tank)

Additional container

• 2 × drop-off additional tanks with 400 liters (106 US gallons) of kerosene
• 2 × additional fuel tanks with 500 liters (132 US gallons) of kerosene

Whereabouts

Saab 29 in the HGM

Saab 29 on the LiTec school grounds in Linz

Today, in addition to various machines in museums, there is only one airworthy copy (civil registration SE-DXB), which is owned by the Swedish Aviation Museum and looked after by the F10 Friends Society in Ängelholm . In the outdoor area of ​​the Vienna Army History Museum there is a model of a "flying barrel" that is accessible to the public around the clock and which has been decommissioned by the Austrian Armed Forces. Another model, which is part of the Army History Museum, is in the military aviation exhibition in Zeltweg at the Hinterstoisser air base . One machine is in the Austrian Aviation Museum at Graz Thalerhof Airport . Another decommissioned copy is located in Linz on the LiTec school grounds (HTL Paul-Hahn-Straße). One machine is located at Vienna Airport, another privately owned in the Styrian town of Ratschendorf.

Web links

Commons : Saab J-29  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• SAAB 29 Tunnan, a short description in Swedish military aviation (English)
• SE-DXB on Airliners.net (pictures)
• Jet jets according to Nazi plans on Tages-Anzeiger

Individual evidence

1. ^ A flight through the ages. Flygvapenmuseum, 2002.
2. ^ Radinger, Schick: Messerschmitt Secret Projects. Aviatic.
3. ↑ Janes all the worlds aircraft 1956–1957.
4. ^ Greg Goebel: The SAAB 29 Tunnan . In: vectorsite.net. July 1, 2011, archived from the original on June 29, 2011 ; accessed on October 6, 2012 (English). 
5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ on doppeladler.com , accessed on September 10, 2013
7. ^ Website of the Austrian Aviation Museum Graz-Thalerhof