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Saab 21R

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The Saab 21R was a Swedish twin-boom fighter/attack aircraft, made by SAAB. It was a jet-powered development of the piston-engined Saab 21 and is unusual for being the only aircraft that saw service as both a piston-engined fighter, and a jet fighter. As a fighter, its service designation in the Swedish Air Force was J 21R, and saw service in the late 1940s.

Design and development

The 21R was powered by a De Havilland Goblin 3 turbojet and was Sweden's first jet-powered aircraft to be developed and built domestically.

There were quite a few differences between the 21A and the 21R, aside from the method of propulsion. The most notable difference was that the tailplane was raised to the top of the fins, moving it out of the way of the jet blast.

Operational history

The first prototype Saab 21R first flew on 10 March 1947, just after the Second World War. The aircraft first entered into service with F 10 in August 1950. Although the type was originally intended as a fighter aircraft, a newly developed fighter, the Saab J 29 first flew in October 1948, the number to be produced was halved from 120 to 60, and eventually all 21Rs were converted to attack aircraft as A 21RA or the A 21RB depending on the engine type.

Variants

J 21RA / A 21RA
First production series, powered by British-built engines, 34 built in 1950 (including four prototypes), retired in 1953.[1]
J 21RB / A 21RB
Second production series, powered by Swedish-built engines, 30 built between 1950 and 1952, retired in 1956.

Operators

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Specifications (Saab 21RA)

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See also

Related development

Comparable aircraft

Designation sequence
Saab 17 - MFI-15 Safari - Saab 18 - Saab 21 - Saab 21R - Saab 29 Tunnan - Saab 32 Lansen - Saab 35 Draken - Saab 37 Viggen - Saab 39 Gripen Related lists

References

Notes

  1. Widfeldt 1966, p. 9.

Bibliography

  • Andersson, Hans G. Saab Aircraft since 1937 (1st ed.). London: Putnam, 1989. ISBN 0-85177-831-3.
  • Sharpe, Michael. Attack and Interceptor Jets. London: Friedman/Fairfax Publishers, 1999. ISBN 1-58663-301-5.
  • Widfeldt, Bo. The Saab 21 A & R (Aircraft in Profile number 138). Leatherhead, Surrey, UK: Profile Publications Ltd., 1966.

External links

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de:Saab 21R es:Saab 21R it:Saab 21R ja:サーブ 21 no:Saab 21R fi:Saab 21R sv:Saab 21R

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Saab 21R".