A Bird, a Jet, and Digital Swedes: The Viggen Story

A Bird, a Jet, and Digital Swedes: The Viggen Story

Swedish ingenuity, a unique jet aircraft, and digital circuits: unwelcome to the Viggen story.

The Saab 37 Viggen, known as 'The Tufted Duck' in Swedish, is not just a jet aircraft. It was the first canard-equipped aircraft to be produced in quantity. The Viggen was designed and produced by the Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab as a successor to the Saab 32 Lansen and the Saab 35 Draken. Originally, a Rolls-Royce Medway engine was chosen to power the Viggen, but it was cancelled. This was replaced by the American Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine. The Viggen was designed with a relatively radical delta wing configuration, and it operated as an integrated weapon system in conjunction with Sweden’s STRIL-60 national electronic air defense system.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons

Written by Nik Frost

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