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~S~ All
I was just reading the article "SAAB Story" in the Oct 05 issue of Flight Journal Magizine and read something that I have to get an opinion on.
I don't know if this is the authors opinion or SAAB'S but they claim that the

J29 in 1951 was the first sweptwing fighter in Europe.

on the next page in a pic caption they write that the

J29 was the first sweptwing fighter jet to be put into large scale production in western Europe.

To me these are two different statements leading one to believe that the J29 was:
1. The first sweptwing fighter in Euro.
2. The first sweptwing fighter in W. Euro to gain large scale production.
wasn't the ME-262 and the ME-163 Comet both sweptwing fighters?
It can be argued that niether German fighter was produced on a large scale but isn't that nit picking between red and green apples?
I believe that at least the ME-262 can hold the honor of both statements applied to the J29.
If you look at a pic of the J29 one gets the feeling that our neutral buddies had an eye to the east at least for this fighter design.

The ME-163 was nearly a deltoid wing section, not quite though.

As to the ME-262...Very close call...

ME-262 Production numbers are sketchy becuase of skips in the "Werk" numbers for iunknown reasons, but this is from the "Warbird Alley" website:

"There were 1,433 Me 262s built, with nearly 500 more destroyed by bombing raids before they were completed. Of that total, fewer than 300 were actually used in combat."

www.warbirdalley.com/me262.htm


Does that number sound higher than what you expected? Did to me at first!

But, it acually fits pretty well with what Galland said in his book. And ultimataly, doesn't the term "Mass Production" simply denote the intent to build as many as you can? In that respect, it was certainly mass produced, notwithstanding the decision to have stalled the start of production for so long.

Aristaeus...I just looked up a photo of the J29, 'cause I'm not too familiar with SAAB, and WOW...didn't I just d/l that for CFS3?

Sure 'looks' like an ME P.1101 ! Built 6 years after the war eh....Thx!

Where you think the US got their idea for the Sabre and the Russians for their MIG's ???

exactly the Messerschmidt P.1101............

The Tunnan was pretty ugly though - I think that the Tunnan is barrel in Swedish? Acurate description!

H

IHMO, SAAB's most impressive acheivement was it's replacement, the J35 Draken. IIRC, it was the third production supersonic fighter in the world (after the F-100 and MiG-19), and years ahead of the English Electric Lightning.

David

rgr Deenee,

Tunnan = barrel..........imagine flying barrels


fled