AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 169 / 185

Plate 169 of 185 · Cold War · Canard-delta attack and reconnaissance

Saab AJSH 37 Viggen

AJSH 37 Viggen, painted as 37918, Newark Air Museum’s Saab AJSH 37 Viggen, built as an SH 37 maritime reconnaissance Viggen and rebuilt in 1995 as one of 25 AJSH 37 multi-role conversions, which served with the Swedish Air Force’s F 17, F 10 and F 21 wings before it was flown into RAF Cranwell in February 2006 and lent to the museum at Newark: Sweden’s canard-delta strike and reconnaissance fighter, 34 ft 9 in in span, with one Volvo RM8 afterburning turbofan fed by side intakes and fitted with a thrust reverser, a large high-set canard foreplane with trailing-edge flaps just behind the intakes, a low-set double-delta main wing with a dogtooth leading edge, a tall swept fin, a small ventral fin and tandem-wheel main undercarriage, shown standing level on its tricycle undercarriage with the canopy raised, a grey centreline drop tank and a reconnaissance pod on the starboard fuselage pylon: four-colour Swedish splinter camouflage in light yellow-green, mid green, black-green and brown over grey undersides, a black radome, a yellow ‘21’ on the nose, Swedish three-crown roundels on the forward fuselage and the wings, a red ‘57’ on the fin, a dark fin-tip cap and yellow danger triangles on the intakes, as displayed (no photograph shows the whole of the upper surfaces, so the splinter pattern there is generated from the sampled colours and repeats on both sides, and no photograph shows the undersides, so their grey and the lower-wing roundels are assumed).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as 37918, Newark Air Museum’s Saab AJSH 37 Viggen, built as an SH 37 maritime reconnaissance Viggen and rebuilt in 1995 as one of 25 AJSH 37 multi-role conversions, which served with the Swedish Air Force’s F 17, F 10 and F 21 wings before it was flown into RAF Cranwell in February 2006 and lent to the museum at Newark: Sweden’s canard-delta strike and reconnaissance fighter, 34 ft 9 in in span, with one Volvo RM8 afterburning turbofan fed by side intakes and fitted with a thrust reverser, a large high-set canard foreplane with trailing-edge flaps just behind the intakes, a low-set double-delta main wing with a dogtooth leading edge, a tall swept fin, a small ventral fin and tandem-wheel main undercarriage, shown standing level on its tricycle undercarriage with the canopy raised, a grey centreline drop tank and a reconnaissance pod on the starboard fuselage pylon: four-colour Swedish splinter camouflage in light yellow-green, mid green, black-green and brown over grey undersides, a black radome, a yellow ‘21’ on the nose, Swedish three-crown roundels on the forward fuselage and the wings, a red ‘57’ on the fin, a dark fin-tip cap and yellow danger triangles on the intakes, as displayed (no photograph shows the whole of the upper surfaces, so the splinter pattern there is generated from the sampled colours and repeats on both sides, and no photograph shows the undersides, so their grey and the lower-wing roundels are assumed). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (997 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the AJSH 37 Viggen modelled here.

History

The AJSH 37 Viggen

Sweden stayed out of NATO through the Cold War and planned to fight any invasion with its own aircraft, flown from a scattered network of road bases rather than from airfields that could be bombed on the first day. In the early 1960s Saab was asked for a single aircraft to replace the Lansen in the attack, reconnaissance and fighter roles, able to take off and land on stretches of ordinary road about 500 metres long and be turned round there by conscript ground crews. Its answer, the Saab 37, put a large fixed foreplane with flaps ahead of a delta wing, to give lift at low speed, and paired a Swedish-built version of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D turbofan with an afterburner and a thrust reverser. The first prototype flew on 8 February 1967 with Erik Dahlström at the controls. The name Viggen means “the thunderbolt”.

The first production version, the AJ 37 attack aircraft, entered service with F 7 at Såtenäs in 1971. It was followed by the SK 37 two-seat trainer, the SF 37 photographic reconnaissance version and, in 1975, the SH 37 for maritime radar reconnaissance, which watched shipping in the Baltic. The JA 37 fighter, with a new radar, a gun pod and a more powerful engine, came last, in 1980. The landing was flown without a flare, and the thrust reverser engaged automatically as the nosewheel touched down, so the aircraft stopped in a short distance and could even back up under its own power.

In all 329 Viggens were built, including the prototypes. In the 1990s, as the Gripen arrived, 115 attack and reconnaissance aircraft were modernised to serve in more than one role: the AJ 37s became AJS 37s, and 25 SH 37s and 25 SF 37s became AJSH 37s and AJSF 37s. The last Viggens left Swedish Air Force service in November 2005, and none was ever exported. Newark Air Museum is the only UK collection in the gazetteer to hold the Viggen, and it also has a Saab Draken.

This airframe

AJSH 37 Viggen “57”

37918The airframe modelled

Viggen 37918 was built as an SH 37 maritime reconnaissance aircraft and served with F 17, F 10 and F 21. In 1995 it became one of the 25 SH 37s converted to AJSH 37, which kept the reconnaissance role and gained a limited attack capability. Its last flight, in February 2006, took it to RAF Cranwell, and the Swedish Air Force Museum lent it to Newark Air Museum at Winthorpe, which took it over that December. It is displayed in Hangar 2 in the marks of F 21, the Norrbotten Wing at Luleå. The model shows it as photographed there: four-colour Swedish splinter camouflage in light yellow-green, mid green, black-green and brown, a black radome, the yellow wing number “21” on the nose, the blue and yellow three-crown national marking on the forward fuselage and the wings, the red code “57” on the fin, a dark fin-tip cap and yellow danger triangles on the intakes. It stands with the canopy raised, a grey drop tank on the centreline and a reconnaissance pod on the starboard fuselage pylon. No photograph shows the whole of the upper surfaces, so the splinter pattern is generated from the colours sampled in the photographs and repeats on both sides, and no photograph shows the undersides, so their grey and the roundels under the wings are assumed.

See it at Newark Air Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the AJSH 37 Viggen in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 185 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.