Swedish Thunderbolt - The Saab JA 37 Viggen
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2021
- Not really a Forgotten Aircraft, but I love the Viggen.
In the 1960s Saab managed something remarkable - building the most advanced combat aircraft being produced in Europe at the time.
And the JA 37 was the formidable fighter variant.
If you like this content please consider supporting me at Patreon:
/ ednash
Want another way to help support this channel? Maybe consider buying my book on my time fighting ISIS:
amzn.to/3preYyO
Interested in military affairs/history?
militarymatters.online/ 
Наука
Remember as a kid sitting in a canoe in the middle of a lake in the North of Sweden watching Viggens practice dogfighting just a couple of hundred meters above my head or running out of the family summer house when you heard the roar, trying to catch a glimpse as they went by at tree top height. Great memories.
Great indeed
Remember getting on my bike as a kid, going to the beach while 2 of these suddenly came booming above my head over the forest I was biking through- Damn near shit my pants every time 😂
I remember a weapons demonstration during my conscripted military service in the 80’s, where we where shown the effect of different weapons like the Robot70, the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle etc, when the speaker asked us to look in one specific direction and how suddenly two Attack Viggen came on treetop level and did a fake ground attack strike with their canons. With fake I mean using blanks, but they had synced it really well with pre set charges in the ground so it looked they walked their canons up against where we stood! The attack was over in seconds, and then they where gone and I can say we all hold our breath during it. They did another pass, but then the ground effect was not synced that good and it was then we realized that the first one was a fake one. Anyways, those guys that piloted the Viggens during the cold war was crazy dudes and wicked pilots. They always flew like it was wartime, low and fast, because they knew if shit hit the fan they where the first to go and they needed to be good to give the military time to mobilize the conscript army of 600-800 000 men with would take 3 days. They and the Navy had to hold of the Soviets those three days, and of course those of us that was in training at that time.
It a frikkin shame our politicians dismantled most of our defenses when the Soviet Union collapsed, so naive it’s almost criminal!
Don't think that there were blanks used in akan pods
I saw viggens go booming through the sound barrier passing over the coastline where i grew up all the time as a kid. Now gripen fighters do the same thing, its great to live by strategic areas close to a swedish airbase!
Good old days when there was a lot of military aviation around during summer times. I've seen (and heard !) Mirages, Starfighters, Tornados & Phantoms breaking the sound barrier where I lived in Germany; especially the Phantoms were brutally loud beasts.
@@ottovonbismarck2443 That's not bad considering you died in 1898, Iron Chancellor! 😅
@@datadavis I'm undestructable :-)
Lucky
Var bor du?
I once had the privilege of standing in the open bay of a Swedish C-130, with a pair of Gripens flying as slow as they could right behind us. It was almost as if I could reach out and touch them, they were so close. The one thing I remember clearly was their canards, pitched up and twitching like elephant's ears, incessantly adjusting because of the slow airspeed. Magical.
Hey, I've done that with RAAF F-111 and F/A-18s. It's a hoot, isn't it? I asked the F/A-18 pilot about it afterwards and he said he was sighting up the trailing edge of the rudder! That meant he was very close indeed! I daresay those Swedish pilots were doing the same thing...?
Well *of* *course* elephants have to constantly adjust the pitch of their ears during slow flight. Drag's causing problems too at low speeds you know.
- I know these things.
- I watched the original (un-cut) Dumbo.
That's the smart thing with the C-130. People though about how could it be possible to film the 37's from the front while flying? That's the answer!?
Fun fact - according to Erik Bratt's memoirs, the choice of engine for the Viggen came about in a weird way. And he was one of the chief engineers in the project. He was the chief designer of the earlier Draken, by the way. Anyway, they had some meeting early on in the project, with top brass from the Air Force, and SAAB people, to discuss three possible layouts for this new fighter. Either a scaled up Draken, or a more normal aircraft with a tail and swept wings, or maybe this new design with a delta wing and a delta canard. They also were going to discuss what engine to put in the aircraft, perhaps the Olympus as in the upcoming Concorde, or an Avon, or maybe a Pratt and Whitney JT8D (with an afterburner, slight complication since it didn't have one!). They needed some cutaway illustrations for the meeting, so one of SAAB's illustrators was tasked to make these. He asked "Do you want me to make nine illustrations, with all possible combinations of airframes and engines?" "Naah, just three will do." "What engine goes into which airframe, then?" "Doesn't matter, do as you please." During the meeting they only discussed what airframe design to chose, and chose the canard one. Afterwards everyone seemed to have agreed that it also meant the JT8D engine, because the illustrator on random had picked that engine for that airframe. At least that's what Erik Bratt claimed in his memoirs, and he was very much involved in the project, so he should have known. He himself called it "A decision made at the highest level. Based on an even higher level of confusion."
Modern military procurement in a nutshell lol.
true story? :)
JT8D is a US engine, which meant SAAB was unable to export it because the US had final veto authority.
@@andreinarangel6227
Strange, that.
I thought that the Rolls Royce Medway was also considered as an engine for the Viggen? There is a possibility of some confusion between the Avon and the Medway as they are both from the same company.
As a kid, living in Farnborough, watching this pair banking at full afterburner and managing to crack our massive front window was epic.
I grew up near to a civilian airfield in Stockholm. One day, they were doing a practice run before a show the next day. We were out in the garden, and one of the Viggens came in low for a turn, flying so low I could clearly see the drilled holes in the air brakes.
@@CBDuRietz We used to clear an area in the meadow and lay on the floor waving at the red arrows as the displayed. You could clearly see their visors. This was back before they could only display in close earth orbit.
I guess dad thought it was less epic to pay for a new massive window?😂
I remember seeing the Viggen flying in a display at the Farnborough Air Show possibly in 1972. It was awesome. I have always had an affection for Saab jet fighters. The 21R, J29, J32, J35 were all interesting designs. The JAS 39 is no slouch either. Also the Saab 105 trainer/light attack was another useful bit of kit.
Fun fact: the saab 105 was originally meant to be a civillian airplane. The same with the saab 91 safir (I think it is 91 at least.) They were however mostly used by the airforce with the saab 105 getting the name of sk60 and the safir sk50.
Sk btw means trainer.
As there are so many knowledgeable people here, could anyone confirm that the only Saab aircraft to actually be used in anger was the J29? I thought I read somewhere that they were part of a peace keeping UN force in Africa - possibly the Congo?
@@mikebutler6308 you would be correct, saab 29 tunnans were used in congo. And they did shoot down plane(s) I don't rmember if it was one or two.
However during WWII some swedish s16s were shot down while doing recon. Those are not exactly saab planes but they are swedish planes.
And then in 1952 a swedish dc3 was shot down by a MiG 15 while flying over the baltic sea.
Then in 1985 a sh 37 viggen was flying over the baltic when 2 su15s were spotted. The viggen pilot felt that the su15s were aggressive (they were loaded with missiles if I remember correctly) and they were following him. So he did an evasive manuver that the heavier and less manuvrable su15 could not follow. He did a half roll at 500m altitude and turned towards the surface of the water pulling away at about 100m altitude. He knew that the su15 could not do this but in the rear view mirror he saw that the russian pilot still tried to follow him into the mauever. He flew straight into the water at high speed.
I am not sure if any of these count as "used in anger" but they are still interesting.
The Viggen also benefited from the first woven core memory computer in aviation, and with the use of the BAS 60, the defence / dispersal plan for the Swedish Airforce it was way ahead of NATO.
Fantastic looking design, but the Draken still holds it for me, with the Viggen in a tie with the Lightning F6.
Must have been the summer of 1980 or -81, I was sitting in a rowing boat on a lake in the south of Sweden, trying to catch a perch or two. Suddenly I heard a roar in the sky, a Draken turned up just south of me, followed by a Viggen. They started an intense dogfight, constantly trying to out-manoeuvre each other. After a few minutes the Draken climbed straight up, the Viggen followed and I guess they declared a truce before disappearing westwards, maybe headed for the base in Ängelholm.
Nice story! Where was this lake? Ängelholm didn´t get Viggen until 1993 but they could have landed there anyway...
@@jockeahlgren465 It was Fällesjön, northeast of Ljungby, north of the village Hörda. Considering it was 40 years ago, I might be wrong about which direction they took after the "fight".
The Draken had bare metal skin, the Viggen had camouflage paint as I remember it.
When one Delta Wing just isn’t enough …
The Draken is the most attractive combat aircraft ever to my eye. Unique and sexy.
Draken, Viggen, Gripen ............ Hell of a stable innit?
Doesn't beat the MiG-23 for me but it's up there :D
it looks like a truck from profile.....not as graceful as. a mirage ....
@@moirakadhan745 what about mig29?
I have 2 pictures of Draken framed on my wall :)
Come to Sweden, specifically the city of Linköping. There is a wonderful museum for the Swedish aviation industry. The museum shares the same airfield that SAAB still uses today for the development of the JAS Gripen. There is also free admission, if that helps. There you can also see the Swedish reconnaissance plane that was shot down by the Soviet Union in 1952. There is still a lot of secrecy surrounding that event.
I'd love to. Have to talk the wife into it :)
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters You could advertise that there is a huge IKEA as well ...
@@ottovonbismarck2443 🤣
@@ottovonbismarck2443 You can build your own Viggen from flat-pack?
My employer's HQ is located in that city. Next time I visit, I'll add a day and go to the museum. Thanks for the tip!
I grew up in a rural area near an air base and experienced fast and low flying Viggens many times, one second peaceful and quiet the next a loud viggen or two and then silence again! Awesome!
F15?
In aviation history, all fighter aircraft have always had to struggle to get a proper engine. Then there's Saab, "Hey why don't we just use a common Airliner engine (Boeing 727) and modify that?" saving a ton of money and time. This plane was developed on such a tight budget that it truly shows off the brilliance of the people that work for Saab.
In fact, I don't think Saab has ever produced an underperforming fighter, even the Saab 29 Tunnan was a very good bird, it just looked more like a Chinese Pug than a fighter...LOL
It was in fact an envisioned military version of the JT8D called JT8D-22. But P&W did not have time to develop it so Volvo had to that work on their own.
To be fair at the time there was less of a difference between a military and a civilian engine. These days you'd have a lot more difficulty putting a civilian high-bypass turbofan into a jet fighter!
One of my all time favourites, an absolute beauty.
Agreed it's such a great airframe
A small correction, the SH 37 was built for maritime reconnaissance, not strike. The 'S' stands for 'Spaning' in Swedish which in this case translates to reconnaissance. The H is for 'Hav' i.e sea . It had an improved radar with longer range but carried less extensive camera equipment than the SF37 version. It did have the ability to carry anti-ship missiles but maritime strike was very much a secondary mission compared to the critical reconnaissance work.
Ahhh...my mistake!
A "vigg" is a water bird. Aythya fuligula. I have a book about a bird "viggen Viggo" ( Viggo the Vigg)
An "åskvigg" is a thunderbolt. In modern swedish "blixt".
@@EdNashsMilitaryMatters No problems, it is hard to navigate though all different versions of Viggen. Thanks for your RUclips serie. Please keep them coming.
I find it very amusing when you get our words wrong. Someone thought that bot was "cure".
Anyway if anyone was wondering I can confirm that S usually stands for Spaning.
With the Gripen it's JAS, Jakt, Attack och Spaning. Jakt is like a form of hunting, but it refers to fighting enemy aircraft, attack, same as the English word and is Ground attack, and I don't need to explain Spaning again
Well. In was only with the AJSH37, that they got the capacity to carry AShM's, in the form av Rb 15F. The SH37 could carry Rb24 (Sidewinders) for self defence though.
One of the most well researched videos of Viggen I've seen to date, well done! I started off with "wait, what, forgotten?..." and the first lines narrated straighted out that questionmark right away. That got me hooked in an instant; this guy knows what he does. :)
Side note: I've been fortunate enough to grow up "with" these jets. Watching them roar from the runways and up. Also watching them go low level over the waters of Bråviken where we had a country side house. Moreover, I've actually been "helping" to build one: I randomly got placed at a nearby SAAB facility when doing my work practice in 8'th grade. Four weeks first hand experience on building parts for some of the last Viggens ever built. I am, still today, amazed by the amount of responsibility my tutor gave me. I got to rivet parts for the fighter jet as a 16-year old.
However, the most memorable moment was as a conscript in the army, where I had one assignment putting me on the side of a road where the Viggen would demonstrate its ability to land on ordinary roads and show case it's fast turn around time for some prominent military guests. The pilot flew over us first, went around and did the landing coming to a full stop just meters from us. Still remembering the pilot hanging forward in the straps due to the aggressive breaking - saluting the military VIPs (NOT me!). After full stop the fighter taxied a but further where conscripts simulated a refuel and rearnament in
Thank you for the kind words. And yes, one day I'll see the Viggen fly 😁
I agree, it's a beauty. Mind you the drakken too was a stunner. They have continued the trend with the Gripen, another beauty.
Back in the early 90's when Estonia just get independent. My father and I sailed across Balticsea from Sweden to Estonia island Dagö. It was an 4 boat sail, over open water for 2 days. We get navigation charts from Russian mercadies ship in swedish ports. Second morning it was almost calm. And morning mist was gone. Suddenly
a SH37 and SF37 roared in between our boats. They where just skimming the surface. When they took up, jetblast trow up water. As they climbed, they rolled out left/ right.And performed dive attacks from two directions at our "fleet". Could hear them going on/off afterburner for 10-15 min over the sea. Guess they where checking out merchandise ships. 30 min later a SK60 light trainer showed up. They don't have radar. But I guess we where reported as Swedish air forces target of the day.
That day I understood I should had studied harder, to pass pilots examination.
I used to commute to and from work in Norrköping back in the eighties, waiting at a bus stop, about 1.5 kilometers away from the F13 Wing, operating Viggens. That's slightly less than a mile, maybe 0.9 miles or so. The thunder and roar of those beasts taking off shook the earth. You could literally feel the ground vibrate under your feet, and hear window panes rattle all around you. Even at that distance. Marvelous sound, it was like a rock concert, with the bass pounding your chest. One of the biggest afterburning engines ever built. Not at all like those wimpy whistling sounds other aircraft make.
During a visit to Sweden from my home in the UK, remember driving alongside a lake (possibly Vattern?) and stopping for a break.
Wondering what the fast approaching noise was, a three ship formation of Viggens, at less than tree top height, went barreling up the lake. Most impressive.
After watching them disappear into the distance I returned to my car. What was I driving? Clue is, the ignition key was between the seats...
(For non car buffs, Saab 900)
Yes, probably Vättern. It is a long and narrow lake. The main highway runs along the steep eastern shore, high above the water, where you get that amazing view of the lake.
As far as I remember the F7 fighter air wing, which has been one of the most important air force assets and it's active to this very day, is located at the shores of the lake in Såtenäs.
Nice aircraft. Nice car too !
@@Locomotion-uz4ly F7 Såtenäs is by the other great lake in Sweden, Vänern. The fighter wing by lake Vättern was F6, in Karlsborg. No longer operational as an Air Force fighter wing. But they might still train paratroopers and fly drones, if I remember right. They are not closed down completely, anyway, as far as I know. So they are still up to some kind of mischief! 😀
I worked in the SWAF during the 80'ties and 90'ties. This was the beast... you can also recognize the RM8B vafiants of the swept tip of the rudder.
It was the first pointy jet that an old friend of mine flew. A magnificent beast.
It is very pointy.
@@paintnamer6403 When you think about it you can see the point of that really
Memories..
I did my service as a Weapons mechanic on the JA37. It was in the later half of 81 and we had to wait abt. 6 months for the new JA. During that period we had to work with the older AJ, SH, SF and on occation the SK, beside a few Draken, Lansen and SAAB 105.
The JA was a beast! and wonderful working with.
Beside my ordinary duty as part of ground crew I spent 6 months on overhaul, engine swap and testing. Quite extraordinary for a conscript corporal. I loved the time on the F17 Wing and I miss the JA37 that is retired now.
im really happy to be able to say that ive seen j29 tunnan, saab 105, lansen, draken, viggen and gripen fly and i have been able to sit in cockpits of both the draken and viggen which you can do up in Östersund Teknikland in sweden. I remember as a kid when my dad lifted me and my sister up into the afterburner portion of an out of service viggen.
Fun fact:
The Viggen at 1:18 with tail number 26 (also called "Olle 26" since it was stationed on F15 airbase) is the viggen with the most flight hours. And currently lives as a AJS 37 simulator at F15 flightmuseum. A highly recomended visit.
Something that just clicked with me as a kid for any aircraft that does not require a airport to be used. Loved the Swedish planes and Harrier for this reason :)
Same! When i was a kid, my country bought used Drakens, and my dad told me that the swedes used "normal streets" as emergency and wartime runways. Already with the Draken they did that. Later i saw pictures of them doing that on snow covered roads. (not cleared from the snow, but "steamrolled" snow if that's the right word.) Long ago there was a video on yourtube showing several Viggens taking off and landing on snow covered roads, but i can't find it anymore)
I grew up a mile from one of thein case of war airstrips they used a lot for training. It was a one not part of public roads like most were so it was convinient to use for training since they didnt have to shut down traffic . But those were everywhere back then. Suddenly a 2 lane highway for a mile became straight and double as wide, and trees and shrubbery were cut for another 30m (100ft) on each side. From those straights much more narrow tarmac taxi ways led in all directions into the forests from those strips ending at a bunker and a parkin space for like one or two Viggen or Draken planes plus service vehicles usually with the forest trees cut in ways that made it really hard to see these taxi ways and holding/service spots from above.
This system with 100s of strips around sweden was a way to directly separate planes and conceal them when on the ground while at the same time keeping them operational at a moments notice. Since there were so many strips like this everywhere planes could always be kept where both needed and safe during a conflict, as they could not get strafed and bombing a huge area around such an airstrip to get the planes became close to impossible, and for that matter the air strip used could be changed constantly as in large parts of the country there were just like 10 miles between these. And these ones using public roads were used for training as well now and then.
I remember a few times during the late 70s and 80s when MP's appeared on roads stopping traffic that had to wait while 2 Viggens took off or landed 100m (300ft) in front of our family car. Then both disappeared into the forest in 2 directions separating with a mile between them in a minute after landing, hidden from the air. The strip close to my childhood home though was an airstrip in the middle of a forest with the same infrastructure as the road ones. Taxiways led away in all directions into the forest from that strip as well. But the difference with this one was that it was used a lot by both Viggen and Draken planes. It was a place called Uråsa south of Växjö in southern sweden. The planes doing wargames and drills passed 200m (600ft) above our farm those days/weeks and if it was a serious excersice or game they performed they could pass with seconds in between sometimes.
And let me tell you something. A Viggen with afterburner in use taking off from a strip like that roar like nothing I've heard in my life and in fact my first memory is from when I was like 3y old and out on the lawn a summer day. Suddenly the air from nowhere became something different for a few seconds and the plane passed over my head extremely low on full power with a lit ass. It was so sudden and so violent it became my first memory in life. I remember standig barefoot on the lawn just stepping without moving unable to breath normakky or talk for a long time after in utter shock while my parents tried to calm me down again.
I after that heard it 100s of times but then I knew what it was and I never got so surprised because even if it happened without even a second of warning my brain after that knew what it was at least. And since my dad was a hobby pilot i spent a lot of time on airfields as a kid, and often went to airshows etc so I have seen and heard a lot of planes close on full power but again, believe me.
The sound of a Viggen on max power plus burner is something past a sound if you're close. It's so increadibly agressive and loud that a word like sound or noise doesn't even feel right to use when describing it.
A F15 or 16 sound A LOT but a Viggen is beyond that. It makes the air around you beat the shit out of you, body and soul... with bats... from all directions.
And if surprised by it coming out of nowhere super low on high power with no warning it takes some seconds before you are sure your intestants has not turned into a thick soup and that you will actually survive the sudden assault. Possibly even as a functional human being. It's more of a physical experience than something you hear and i just love the sound of them.
However, you need to be at least 2/3 of a mile away to hear it well and be able to enjoy it as a sound.
At 600ft behind it with it's asshole on fire your ears gets it, violently... For sure.
But you still feel it hurting you more than hear it.
Then again, that motor is friggin huge and I'm not sure but I think I read somewhere that on full power a Viggen with full tanks burned up all it's fuel in 8½ minutes.
Beautiful plane, and a good plane Viggen.
The Viggen may have replaced the Draken in service, but it’ll never replace the Draken in my heart ❤️
I've seen the Viggen in action at RAF Mildenhall.
The major feature it possesses, is that it makes an absolutely *apocalyptic* din on takeoff with full afterburner. I was standing just 300 feet opposite one when it lit up the afterburner for its takeoff role, and the shock waves were physically compressing my chest as I panned the camera. That engine put out a *lot* of thrust.
I've heard it described in some circles as "A big engine with wings and a cockpit added as an afterthought", which is probably well wide of the mark, given its avionics and radar fitment, but it had enough of a power to weight ratio to allow the pilot to pull some, shall we say, *interesting* manoeuvres. Those canard foreplanes gave it a shockingly tight turn radius even when the pilot was barrelling over the airfield at close to Mach 1.
If you ever get to see one at an air show, you will need *very* quick reactions to follow it with the camera. You will also need excellent ear protection, because this beast is LOUD. You'll also be wondering how it stows those huge mainwheels in the wings when it lifts off. Some interesting engineering packaging is built into this aircraft.
Also, because of the manner in which the canard foreplanes are staggered vertically with respect to the wings, the aircraft is, in effect, a supersonic biplane. A good nose on look at one standing on the runway makes this *very* apparent when you see the vertical separation between the canard foreplanes and the main wings. it would be interesting to see the wind tunnel data for the Viggen, and see if there's airflow interaction between the two sets of surfaces, which I suspect may be the case ...
Hi Ed. I've always had the highest respect for Sweden with their ability to produce champagne on beer money. The Vigen being no exception .However, l wasn't aware of Eisenhowers "assistance" but l was aware of the Blackbird incident . Thanks Ed.
As a kid, I always so loved this cool ass double delta attack fighter. Whilst Gripen does have fine lines, she lacks the brute force of the Viggen. The Draken, oh the DRAKEN was and is just too damn cool. I saw my first Draken at Sun N' Fun last April and she's a pretty beast. Alas Saab aircraft are all too rare on this side of the pond. Ed THANKS for yet another cool and instructive video.
Thanks, I saw the JA37 at the F.I.80 airshow, it got airborne after a very short take off run, a real beast.
The importance of that digital datalink cannot be overestimated. It was a quantum leap in the effectiveness of the aircraft. Of course, most will argue about its performance and dogfighting capabilities and the SR-71...
The datalink was a massive upgrade and force multiplier and extended the aircraft's useful service life by a couple of decades. Needless to say, network centric warfare is top of the heap these days and aircraft like the F-35 are pretty useless without it.
Absolutly right. And it wasnt only the Viggens. It was air, sea and land. If a mig or a mirage got up we knew it. If ussr moved troups we knewed it. The Brits or French didnt have any of what Lansen or Draken had at the time.
As a kid growing up I always loved seeing and hearing these fighters come flying over. Still remembering that childish feeling of awe as I watched the iconic shape of the Viggen against the blue sky and hearing its roar fly by.
This was my fav 1/72 model kit aircraft and I had SO many of them. I had a Matchbox kit I loved them because they were so cheap and had nice fitting parts. The glass especially was well detailed
Was just about to say how can anybody forget the Viggen? I assembled model as a kid.
Matchbox 1/72 scale !!! And yes, this was over 40 years ago. I've built my last one 10 years ago - and it was again an old Matchbox 1/72 ...
Airfix 1/72 .
To me the 🇸🇪Saab JA37 Viggen is the Jaguar E type, of all fighter planes !
A goergus sight to be had ....
Swedes and their gorgeous flying machines... I'll always have a soft spot for the Viggen, since it was maybe the 2nd modelkit I had as a kid, but the Draken will always be the cutest.
i remember the first time i saw a viggen at the 2000 Koksijde Air Show (Belgium). i was very impressed that a bulky and heavy fighter like that can perform such aerobatic maneuvres. last time i saw it was 2 years ago at the Sanicole Airshow, it was a JA37 of the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight.
Unfortunately, the JA37 will never fly again due to its complex system and the fact that none of the diagnostic tools have been saved. Swedish Air Force Historic Flight has two Viggen the AJS 37 and SK37E
Did my service as a mechanic. Put a lot of those in the air. I even went through all the "debacle" with border control from Gotland.
A thing of note: no other plane in the world had a fighter link like that of the JA 37 until the F22 came into service.
Have seen another video about the intercept with the SR71 with engine trouble. In that version it was a friendly intercept. The Soviet fighters were closing in on the crippled SR71 over the Baltic - probably to harass it, but possibly to shoot it down and claim it strayed in to Soviet airspace. The SR71's ability to spy with impunity really frustrated the Russians, and tensions were high, high enough for there to be a real worry. The Swedish air force watched this develop and vectored a couple of Viggens that were already airborne. They then scrambled a couple more to take over, the first two were of course using fuel at a supersonic rate. After those two had taken over the Soviets gave up and went home. A great story, and I hope I remember enough of it well.
Of course the Swedes did the successful mock intercepts on healthy SR71s.
I have seen that too. From what i remember it wasn't just the fuel why they replaced the first pair, but they were training without weapons and the second pair was the QRF. And the SR-71 pilots also told in that video, that they made sure to stay over public water usually, as there were Mig25's stationed in east germany that knew the schedule and came close to the borders each time to show their presence when the Blackbird went by.
My favourite jet airplane. Vulcans in formation with Viggens would be an awesome sight.
One of my favourite fighters of all time a truly revolutionary design, looks beautiful and did its job perfectly
The lessons they learned in this project in particular regarding the canard and engine and data linking were unique and brought about one of the best modern fighters in the Gripen
I wish we had purchased it in Denmark and Norway Finland as we did the Draken and fused our foreign policies in the Nordics forward for decades
Buying into America’s foreign policy has shown to be a horrible path
Absolut!!
Not least as both Trump & Biden have made clear, America's policy is when the going gets tough the Americans will go away ........
and leave their friends and allies to fend for themselves at short notice.
The American military no doubt hate this. But they follow the orders of their second rate political masters.
Convince Denmark, Norway and Finland to buy big chunks of SAAB stock ;-)
The Viggen has so much detail and background into it - every airbase has a different story to tell with this bird! Awesome video!
I remember a Saab commercial in the late 80s with several Saab’s on the end of a runway as most car commercials like to do. With the narrator briefly going over the features and basic price of each car , with the brief legal disclaimers an then the cars on the runway again with the announcer going ‘ And the absolute top of our line ( high speed Viggen flyby ) at about 32 million dollars ‘
Of all the aircraft i grew up looking at, before the internet came along, this was it.
No mention of those reverse thrust buckets and ability to go backwards on the ground? Lol! I’ve always loved these aircraft, from the time I first read about them in the early 1980s. Seeing some of the videos on RUclips of their STOL capabilities is jaw dropping stuff!
Can you imagine it reverse parking in a car park....then go shopping.
Not just on video. I have seen several airshow displays by them. And each time the crowd was in awe when the Viggen did a short landing, followed by a J-turn on the runway and a short take off again.
(I was always looking forward to the Viggen displays)
On several airshows i have visited ,there were few instances like the Viggen J-turns where the majority of people were completely surprised by what just happened. (Another memorable thing was a RAF Harrier display in Graz 1994.)
Loved these when I was in my youth all those wings and all those missiles fantastic!
Your videos are always intetesting. Great content, great channel.
Can't blame you for covering this 'not forgotten' aircraft. One truly great plane.
"It's gorgeous" is more than enough justification for a video. The 37 doesn't get enough love.
I had the pleasure of seeing the Viggen in flying Display maybe twice @Airpower in Zeltweg/Austria in - I believe - 1997 and 1999. Amazing display & unbelievable sound. And one of the very few military fighter/attack jets with reverse thrust-capability (the only other I know of is the German Tornado). It was amazing to see at first hand how fast these were able to come to a halt after touching down.💪🏻👍😎
My first tamiya kit is Viggen..around 1980
I have seen one flying a view years ago and seeing the short take-off and landing with Trust reversing is just incredible even on a normal airstrip.
Great presentation, thanks for covering this aircraft
Great video! It might not be a forgotten aircraft, but it surely is one not to be forgotten!
They still look so futuristic. I like Gripens, but nothing ever beats the classic futuristic lines of a Viggen.
This aircraft is amazing, the sweds really know how to make a good aircraft
Hey did you know those who serve the plane by arming, fueling and so on on the runway was simply conscript service personnel. They could make a full armed Viggen ready for take off in 7.5 min.
Yessss BUT, correct me if I'm wrong, don't (or at least didn't) Sweden have a quite clever twist to its conscript system which encouraged the 'brightest and best' to opt into certain fields, of which groundcrew might well have been one?
@@Farweasel Not as far as I'm aware. You got your choice if there was a need for you there. If you were a mechanic in the civilian life you might be asked if you wanted to be one during your service.
@@darkiee69 Well, we did go through two full days of testing ("mönstring") before being assigned our tasks and duty stations. It was a combination of physical and mental/intelligence tests, and the four branches of the armed services (army, air force, navy and coastal artillery) could pick and choose the most suitable personnel for the roles they needed to fill based on the results. Civilian experience rarely mattered since we were all young anyway, and we were trained from the ground up in whatever specialist role we would serve in. Most did 10 weeks of basic soldier and field survival training, within a total of 10-15 months of initial training and service. Those selected for command served longer. Then followed a schedule of regular recall to duty for a few weeks of recurring training every few years, until we turned 47 years old and fell out of the conscription system.
@@bennylofgren3208 I know, I did my 228 days at LV4. It was my first choice and I got it.
@@darkiee69 Great! I was at F16, also my first choice. Sorry, didn't mean to lecture you, I wrote mostly for the non-swedes in the comments. :-)
The Viggen is the very first aircraft that I fell in love with. I had a model and toy as a child. I had to be about 8 years old when I saw one the first time, it was instant fascination.
There was one flying at the Southport airshow in 2019 - mindbuggeringly loud it was!
I heard and saw Viggen flying quite often in the 80-s and 90-s. Lived not very far from a "warbase" where both the Viggen and Draken operated from. When they flew low and passed, the glasses was shaking in the house. The sound was just extreme. Usually there was 2 of them, bute sometimes more. Very fun and nostalgic memories from those years.
Beautiful footage.
Very interesting, thank you. I saw Viggens display at Waddington in 1999 and 2000 - an amazing spectacle. They could reverse under their own power on the ground.
The name "Viggen" alludes to two things in Swedish:
• "Thunderbolt" as mentioned in the video.
• The tufted duck
According to SAAB themselves, both apply. Source: English Wikipedia page on SAAB 37 Viggen.
I remember the first time I saw one of these display. I was probably 12ish. This thing thundered down the runway and shot striaght up. It's a huge airplane and it made the ground shake the entire time and left trails of car alarms in its wake. I was awe struck and fell in love with it instantly. I've been lucky enough to see them display a few times and they never seem to become any less impressive. I hope you get to see it for yourself one day.
What is not often mentioned is how incredibly loud these things are.
Perhaps not forgotten, but certainly a rare bird, one of my favorites as well!
I think Saab JAS 39 Gripen is a great plane, and now I know it was just following in the footsteps of JA 37 Viggen. -- Great video.
Great vid built an airfix kit of one when i was a kid. Great plane loved it's unique looks for the time. A great many followed
Not forgotten at all! Also one of, I believe, only 2 jet fighters with reverse thrust (the other being the Tornado, can’t think of others), which it seems to have been used routinely for taxying… backwards!
Welcome to Sweden! I hope finally after two years of pandemic the Swedish Air Force (Or Armed Forces) will have its Airshow ... In August 2022 in Uppsala. I will be surprised if there will not be one or two Viggen at the show.
What a unique looking aeroplane. Ahead of its time with canards, still, agility. A very sexy looking plane....and the meadow and few splinter camoflauge. One of my top ten jets.
It's funny that you say the canard look is "ahead of its time" when the Wright Flyer was a canard too.
The Viggen is an absolute beauty and way ahead of its time.
Some facts for the pub later tonight. The maintenance was carried out by people doing national service i.e. butchers and bakers, so everything has to be simple and modular.
The STOL capapabilty comes from the fact that the canards lift the nose as opposed to elevators pressing down the tail, as well as the thrust reverser.
Outside of the "superpowers" (US, China, Russia) only Sweden and France can build fighters on their own, which is a remarkable achievement for a small country.
All of the above apply to the Gripen too.
"..only Sweden and France...": Also UK/Germany/Italy/Spain with Eurofighter Typhoon, South Korea with KAI KF-21 Boromae and Turkey with TAI TF Kaan.
One of my favorites as well. I got to see it fly in the Paris Air Show in '81.
As far as I know, right after the end of their service, all Jaktviggen was scrapped. Or most of them. There was two main reason of the decomission: the SAAB needed enough room for their new Gripens in the swedish AF and some structural issues with the Jaktviggens airframe as well. Somehow, even if the JA-37 had much stronger airframe structure, than the former Viggen versions had, after 2000-2003, some unrepairable cracks revealed on their fuselage. The modified RM8B had not just much more raw static thrust, but even a much better dynamic characteristic, whitout all former limitations. It was a very capable and reliable engine, except its size and consumption. The one and only disadvantage of the Jaktviggen was came from the huge size of the RM8B: the very small amount of internal fuel capacity. The large external fuel tank was almost mandatory component of the JA-37 fleet, even for the flight demonstrations. There were several ideas in the 80’s to fix this problem, from the smaller but still capable engine even to the in-flight refueling capability, but the arrival of the Gripen these things going to be obsolete. I don’t know how many flyable JA-37 left after 2006, but I am afraid there is a good reason, why the former AJ-37 and Sk-37 airframes (with the less powerful and limited capabilty RM8A engine) are flyable now only. It seems, there is no available Jaktviggen left, which is cost-effectively able to fly again.
Aaah, Viggens. They regularury passed clsoe to my home as a child. There's few sounds I miss as much as their throaty roar as they cut across the sky.
Seeing one of these at an airshow is impressive!
A truly beautiful aircraft. I remember seeing them often when I was a kid. I would be laying in the grass at our country home or fishing down at the lake, and suddenly two of them (they were always in pairs) would flash across the sky completely silently. Then the sound would come a few seconds later, roaring after them as they disappeared.
The Viggen was my favourite military aircraft as a kid in the 70s.
It's more about hearing the big viggen than just seeing it. The sound at takeoff is massive.
I've actually had the pleasure of crawling from one air intake to the other sides intake. The exhaust of that beast is so large you can stand in it, just slightly bent.. Compared to the gripen everything is massive.
The serviceability on the gripen is great tho, 3 manual winches , the same used for loading rockets, to lower the entire engine, in the field. 10 to 15 minute reload and refuel time from public road landing strips, same as viggen
The Viggen was a beautiful machine, almost as beautiful as the Draken.
Sir, I highly recommend you to have eye surgery done if you insist on your statement. The Viggen is by far more beautiful ! :-)
@@ottovonbismarck2443 As a Swede, I know I’m biased towards our aircrafts, but Draken is the beauty … but again Viggen is brutally handsome! The both looks great in their own ways.
The Draken along with the XB-70 were the first planes I remember looking at and just being wowed, back when I was a kid in the 80s.
@@Hiznogood As a Swede you have to be NEUTRAL on the subject, so your vote doesn't count anyway. :-)
That said, the Draken is of course a beautiful aircraft, just not as beautiful as the Viggen (in my humble opinion). It has the distinctive look of a shark ready to "jump" on its prey. The two tone grey camo even improves the look.
Grijpen is also a good looking "little" thing; had the chance to see two Hungarian ones on a NATO air show.
Best wishes from Germany !
The front wings were just that... front wings, not canards like on future rafale or typhoon
Great work on this video, and kudos on showing the correct videos and pictures of the JA 37 variant when discussing it -- aside from when you were talking about the cannon in 5:35, but I guess you were talking about both the Oerlikon KCA and the ADEN cannon pods ;) Embarrassingly, I sometimes even see Swedish sources mislabeling the attack variant as an interceptor. You already know this, but for other people who might see this, a quick way to tell the Jaktviggen (JA 37) apart from the other variants (aside from the weapons) is by looking at the vertical stabilizer. The one on the JA 37 is a bit taller and "bends" back at the top, pretty clear at 9:09 compared to the AJ 37 in 1:20.
Great video, one of my favorite planes. Learned some new things also. A vid on the Draken would be well welcomed, its a name pretty much most people in military jets knows, but few know anything about it. Kind of like bigfoot!
Such a cool looking jet. Still one of my favourites.
The _Viggen_ is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL...👍👍
Great video! Thanks..
This was my favourite aircraft as a kid. I was 10 in '74 so the Saab Viggen was a perfect fit for a nerdy kid back then.
My bedroom ceiling was littered with 1/72 scale Viggens & my OO railway layout even had a Viggen on the Papier mache hill top road after an emergency landing.
Once I'd discovered that Airfix 1/72 aircraft were OO scale it just had to be!
Viggen sales block event led by the US was result of India’s first nuclear test in 1974. The US government knew that Indian Viggens gonna have the nuclear deterrence capacity. Later, India approached to French-British consortium SEPECAT to buy Jaguar low level long range fighter jets & to license built it in India. Jaguars carried out the nuclear deterrence patrol until Dassault Rafale relieved it from the charge recently.
Great video
In my youth i did see a military training with Viggen at Byholma (Bas 60 and later Bas 90) Airbase. It was in one of the two roadbase airstrip. We was driving home and was stopped by military-police. They blocked the traffic road to let some Viggen land and take of. When we was let go we did past a few planes just a few meter away from the road. It was one of the Last big training that took place there. Magnificent.
My favourite Cold War fighter. Well done, Ed.
I can almost guarantee that once you have seen it fly you will not be disappointed. With afterburner it has a totally unique sound, raw and crackling, but at the same time dark, rich and huge.
I know it's likely not for style, but I love the green of the armaments on the white paint job!
Many years ago I watched danish Drakens pratctise ground attacks. It was on an island close to south west Jutland and it was quite impressive.
the whole north part of Römö in the North sea, is the danish air-force target practice ground
Swedes build some pretty impressive jets.
I´m from Austria, we bought Saab fighter jets for decades, starting right after WWII with the Tunnan. We skipped the Lansen and got the Draken.
The Viggen we skipped again, however the Gripen, while we didn´t buy it, came into the final selection onyl to lose to the Eurofighter.
Personally i would have preferred the Gripen, makes much more sense for us. However my favorite in the selection was the Rafale. France makes such beautiful jets.
Spent some time at an airbase a few years back and you quickly got used to the sound of J39's taking off and landing, to the point you stopped noticing the engine noise. That's until the museum part started up their JA37 for a test run. Damn was that thing loud compared to the 39's!