Saab Gripen

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Image:Gripen.750pix.jpg The Saab JAS-39 "Gripen" (Griffin) is a fighter aircraft from Sweden manufactured by Saab. The fighters are sold by the Gripen International corporation, a joint venture between Saab and BAE Systems.

The Gripen is designed for the expected high demands on flying performance, flexibility, effectiveness, survivability, and availability for the future of air combat. The designation JAS stands for Jakt (Fighter), Attack (Attack), and Spaning (Reconnaissance), indicating that the Gripen is a multirole aircraft that can fulfill each mission type equally well.

Flying properties and performance are optimised for fighter missions with high demands on speed, acceleration and turning performance. The combination of delta wing and canards gives the JAS 39 Gripen very good take off and landing performance and superb flying characteristics. The totally integrated avionics makes it a "programmable" aircraft. With the built in flexibility and development potential the whole JAS 39 Gripen system will retain and enhance its effectiveness and potential well into the 21st century.

Gripen affords far more flexibility than earlier generations of combat aircraft, and its operating costs will only be about two thirds of those for Viggen. This is especially impressive as the Gripen is a more capable aircraft, with a low purchase price.

The specifications for the Gripen required the ability to operate from 800 m runways. Early on in the programme, all flights from Saab's facility in Linköping were flown from within a 9 m x 800 m outline painted on the runway. Stopping distance is reduced by extending the relatively large airbrakes; using the control surfaces to push the aircraft down enabling the wheel brakes to apply more force; and tilting the canards forwards, making them into large airbrakes and further pushing the aircraft down.

In designing the aircraft, several layouts were studied. Saab ultimately selected an unstable canard layout to give the greatest benefits to performance. The canard configuration gives a high onset of pitch rate and low drag enabling the aircraft to be faster, have longer range, and carry a larger useful payload.

Already in operational service with the Swedish Air Force which has ordered 204 aircraft (including 28 dual-seater), the Gripen has also been ordered by the South African Air Force (28 aircraft), Hungary and the Czech Republic (14 aircraft each).

The Philippine Air Force also expressed its interest in the Gripen but its plan to purchase modern multi-role fighter aircraft to replace its retired F-5A/B Freedom Fighters has been shelved due to economic reasons and having counter-insurgency operations as its main priority.

The aircraft cost US$ 25 million in 1998.

1 Crashes
2 Specifications (JAS-39 Gripen)
3 External links
4 Related content

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Crashes

In all, four Gripens have crashed, two of them before the delivery to the Swedish Air Force. This is by no means an extreme number for this kind of aircraft; as a comparison, the test series of Viggen saw seven crashes. However, the first two Gripen crashes were recorded on video and ended up being shown many times on Swedish national television. As a result, a large part of the Swedish public got a skewed perception of the aircraft and came to consider Gripen to be dangerous and unreliable, as well as a waste of tax money and a general embarrassment. The aircraft has yet to completely shed this undeserved reputation, although the successful sales of the plane to several foreign militaries have perhaps helped restore the Swedish public's trust in the plane.

In February 1989 the first prototype crashed on its sixth flight when landing in Linköping. The accident was filmed by a crew from Sveriges Television's Aktuellt. The pilot remained in the tumbling aircraft but was not injured.
In August 1993 a Gripen crashed on the central Stockholm island of Långholmen during an air show. The pilot, the same man as in 1989, ejected safely. No one on the ground was seriously injured.
In September 1999 a Gripen from airwing F7 at Såtenäs crashed into lake Vänern during a dog-fight exercise. After passing through the wake vortex of the other plane, the aircraft abruptly changed course and the pilot got a warning from the ground-collision warning system that a crash was imminent. In accordance with the flight instruction he therefore left the aircraft and landed safely by parachute.
In June 2005 a Gripen from airwing F17 at Kallinge apparently ceased to obey commands from the pilot. After attempting to regain control while the aircraft slowly descended, the pilot finally left the aircraft and landed safely by parachute. The cause of the accident is still to be determined.