Saab 37 Viggen
The Saab 37 Viggen was one of the first fighters in the world built with front canard foreplanes ahead of its main delta wing, a configuration chosen specifically to let it land and take off from very short runways, including stretches of dispersed Swedish public highway. Its thrust-reverser, unusual on a fighter, let it land in dramatically shorter distances than most contemporaries, reinforcing the short-field capability its canard-delta layout was built around. Like the Draken before it, Sweden built it entirely domestically to guarantee wartime fighter production independent of any foreign supplier during the Cold War. It was eventually replaced by the smaller, lighter, and even more short-field-capable Gripen.
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Did you know?
Viggen ground crews were mostly conscripts trained to refuel and rearm the jet in about ten minutes, keeping it flying from dispersed road bases.
Specifications
| Length | 16.3 m (53 ft) |
|---|---|
| Wingspan | 10.6 m (35 ft) |
| Height | 5.6 m (18 ft) |
| Persons on board | 2 |
| Crew | 1 |
| Maximum take-off weight | 15.9 t |
| Range | 621 NM (1,150 km) |
| Maximum speed | 1,145 kt (2,121 km/h) |
| Service ceiling | 60,000 ft (18,288 m) |
| Rate of climb | 40,000 ft/min (203.2 m/s) |
| Take-off distance | 400 m (1,312 ft) |
| Landing distance | 300 m (984 ft) |
| Engines | 1x Volvo Flygmotor RM8 |
| Units built | 175 |
Curated by CatchFlights from manufacturer documents, ICAO Doc 8643 and reference works; values are left out where no source could confirm them. Sources are listed on our credits page.
In CatchFlights
In CatchFlights the Saab 37 Viggen starts as a Legendary catch. The tier is an editorial judgement of how special a sighting of this type is. The more often you catch it, the closer it moves to Common for you. The first catch of a legendary type pays a bonus of its own.
A catch counts for the manufacturer Saab, the 37 Viggen family and the model in your collection, and the daily Type Rating quiz asks about the types of each family.
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