Saab Draken
The SAAB Draken was a Swedish supersonic single-seat fighter aircraft, first flown in October 1955. Approximately 650 of all versions of the Draken were built and it flew with the air forces of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Austria. It has a very unusual double-delta shaped wing and this helped reduce the take-off run, allowing it to be used from both runways and roads. Another unusual feature is the double wheels at the rear of the fuselage, designed to stop the extra-long tail scraping the runway on take-off and landing.
The Draken was powered by a Swedish-built version of the Rolls Royce Avon engine, giving it a maximum speed of about Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound), entering service with Sweden in March 1960. The last aircraft was retired in Austria in 2005, though there is still one aircraft flying with the Swedish Airforce Historic Flight.
Our aircraft, Serial Fv35075, is an early A model (1 of 90 A models built). It flew with Flygflottily (Fighter Wing) F16 from Uppsala, just north of Stockholm, in Sweden until retirement. It was then donated to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford in 1977, from where it was transferred to us in 2005.
The Draken can be found displayed outside, though it is scheduled to be moved into our workshop for restoration work in 2022.