Saab 35 - the Mach 2 Beast no one was Ready for
An aggressor squadron screams across the Baltic sky, closing in on the Swedish Saab 35 Draken at Mach 1.7. By all conventional wisdom, the brand new Swedish fighter should have been trapped—outgunned, outmaneuvered, and seconds away from being another Cold War casualty. But this is no ordinary aircraft.
Suddenly, the Draken's nose pitches up violently, almost perpendicular to its flight path. The fighter seems to hang suspended in midair as its forward momentum evaporates, defying the laws of physics. It was a move that was supposed to be impossible. Any pursuing jet would become a target as the Draken ripped backwards on their tail.
The Swedes called it kort parad—"short parry." It would later become known worldwide as the mythical Cobra Maneuver, and for now in 1963, it exists nowhere else on Earth.
To pull it off required one of the riskiest and most dangerous designs ever implemented in an aircraft. The Saab 35 Draken would either kill or be killed by the “SUPER STALL.
The Saab 35 Draken; (The Kite, ambiguous with The Dragon) is a Swedish fighter-interceptor developed and manufactured by Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (SAAB) between 1955 and 1974. Development of the Saab 35 Draken started in 1948 as the Swedish Air Force future replacement for the then also in development Saab 29 Tunnan day fighter and Saab 32B Lansen all-weather fighter.
It featured an innovative but unproven double delta wing, leading to the creation of a sub-scale test aircraft, the Saab 210, which was produced and flown to test this previously unexplored aerodynamic feature. The full-scale production version entered service with frontline squadrons of the Swedish Air Force on March 8, 1960. It was produced in several variants and types, most commonly as a fighter-interceptor.
The Saab 35 Draken is known for, among other things, its many "firsts" within aviation. It was the first Western European-built combat aircraft with true supersonic capability to enter service and the first fully supersonic aircraft to be deployed in Western Europe. Designwise it was one of, if not the first, combat aircraft designed with double delta wings, being drawn up by early 1950.
The unconventional wing design also had the side effect of making it the first known aircraft to be capable of and perform the Cobra maneuver. It was also one of the first Western-European-built aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in level flight, reaching it on January 14, 1960.
The Draken functioned as an effective supersonic fighter aircraft of the Cold War period, although it was never used in conflict. Even though the type was designed and intended as an interceptor, it was considered to be a very capable dogfighter for the era. In Swedish service, it underwent several upgrades, the ultimate of these being the J 35J model. By the mid-1980s, the SAF's Drakens had largely been replaced by the more advanced JA 37 Viggen fighter, while the introduction of the more capable Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter was expected in service within a decade, although delayed.
As a consequence of cutbacks and high maintenance costs, the SAF opted to retire the Draken during December 1999. The type was also exported to the air forces of Austria, Denmark and Finland. Danish aircraft have been exported, post-service, to the United States where they have seen use as training aircraft for test pilots.
Top Photo: Saab 35 Draken (J35F) from the Swedish Air Force's 13. Fighter aircraft division (Adam Yellow). The plane is numbered 68 (Adam 68) and based at Västmanland wing (F 1). Pilot was fighter pilot Håkan Gunnarsson. The picture was taken above the entrance to the port of Swedish town Köping.
Sources: YouTube; Wikipedia
