Swedish Thunderbolt - The Saab JA 37 Viggen

There's one unusual characteristic of the Viggen I'm not sure you mentioned : It had the capability to go backwards (on the ground, of course!). The pilot could reverse the flux of the engine. The idea was that, in the case of a landing on an unprepared terrain like a public road, the pilot could hide the plane himself by parking it under trees or other coverage.

The sr71 was subsonic and only 30k' up. Good for the Swedes though!

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!

Many thanx Mr. Nash.
Love this Double Delta "Witch"...lol.
Be safe 🦊

What a masterpiece.

Your videos are always intetesting. Great content, great channel.

I think the Mirage2000 looks a little better, but its sure a brutal work horse. It made a hell of a noice when lowsniffing the countryside during trianing exercise.

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 ‘

Vigg means duck...

Excellent Viddy as always . Would you please do a Viddy on the Vultee Vengence Particularly its role in keeping the Japanese out of India although Eric "winkle"Brown said it wasnt as good a dive bomber as the JU87 It does seem to have been better than the Douglass SBD and the japanese Aichi dive bombers. I think its an unsung hero

beautiful aircraft....looks a bit like an F4 Phantom from the future....

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.

😎 cool Jat also and great 👍 one too.

One of my favorites as well. I got to see it fly in the Paris Air Show in '81.

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!

Love it, it looks evil. Not as magnificently evil as the Vulcan or B2, but evil nonetheless

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 ...

One info: 37 wiggen was at first an nuclear bomber. Sweden had an secret nuclear weapon program.

..still waiting on 35! Hrmph! ;-)

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.

"Heads down display"? Can someone explain that to me?

Saw one of these at the Sanicole Airshow here in Belgium. Swedish Air Force still files them for display …

I agree.

The SK37 pulls off the 2nd cockpit nicely.

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.

Wish u would make more older planes videos of
1945-55 or 1930-40 aircraft.
Have you heard of the Class of 1946' aircraft that would have came online If the war continues into 1946'

Big beautiful powerful multi role fighter

And for me in India, we didn't get this due to the American embargo on the P&W engine....

Viggen does not mean Thunderbolt in this case, but Tofted Duck, due to the canards.

It's hard 2 mess up looking like a Saab

The Viggen is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL...👍👍

😍

Of all the aircraft i grew up looking at, before the internet came along, this was it.

"It's gorgeous" is more than enough justification for a video. The 37 doesn't get enough love.

Any idea if the Viggen used hmd?

Vig not only means thunderbolt, it's also the name of a diving duck 🦆.
Canard is French for duck 🦆

If the USAF had've handed the future fighter design contract to Sweden, it would have had a superior world-beater at a fraction of the cost of producing the F-35!!

Say what at the end?

Wish may Country🇵🇭 get now Jas39c/d or E.. I like JAS39 to One of MRF of Phil. Airforce💪🙏💯 tnak you🇸🇪

😎

Saab 35, Ed?

My brother saw these regularly in the 80's. He told me they were louder than most other fighters. Anyone confirm that?

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.

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.

If you once heard the roar from a JA 37 Viggen give full throttle you never forget it.😊

Metalstorm brought me here

I love it's big turbina!

I bet Ukraine wouldn't mind having fifty or a hundred or so of those! That lil' rascal could more than hold it's own against the stuff that putin's bunch put's up!

These used to fly at treetop level, passing over our home. Very noisy, indeed!