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Greetings from
Colombia! On this occasion I bring you my J-32 Lansen, a spectacular Swedish plane that came to replace some missions
of the J-29; here is the history:
The Saab 32
Lansen (Swedish:
"lance") was a two-seater attack
aircraft produced by SAAB
from 1955
to 1960
for the Swedish
Air Force (Flygvapnet). During its long operational life, the Saab 32
also served as a fighter, reconnaissance, electronic warfare and even as a
target-tug aircraft.
The Saab Company was approached in 1948 to develop a turbojet-powered strike
aircraft to replace a series of 1940s vintage attack, reconnaissance and
night-fighter aircraft in the Flygvapnet:
the Saab B 18/S
18, J 21R/A
21R and J 30 (de
Havilland Mosquito). The design was initially designated the P1150.
Swedish Air Force requirements for the P1150 were demanding: the aircraft had
to be able to attack anywhere along Sweden's 1,245 miles (2000 km) of
coastline within one hour of launch from a central location. It had to be
capable of being launched in any weather, day or night. Special attention was to
be paid to integrating the electronics and weapons systems to create the
equivalent of today's weapons systems approach to combat aircraft design. The
aircraft was to be armed with four 20 mm cannon, rockets, bombs and/or a
new anti-ship missile being developed, the Rb
04.
The design team created a sleek airframe with clean lines powered by a
license-built Rolls-Royce
Avon Series 100. Uniquely, the design of the swept wings was the result of
an early application of computer technology. To test the 35° sweepback design,
a half-scale wing was mounted on a Saab
Safir, the Saab 202 Safir. The design initially featured both Fowler
flaps and a leading edge slot. The slot was discarded as unnecessary after
trials with the prototypes and never appeared on a production aircraft. A small
batch of P1150 prototypes completed design and evaluation trials with series
production of the newly renamed Saab J 32 Lansen ("Jakt"
[Fighter]) beginning in 1953. There were no trainer versions, but some Lansens
had rudimentary controls installed in the rear seat.
Soon after entering squadron service, the J 32 Lansen broke the sound
barrier on 25 October 1953 when a production aircraft exceeded Mach 1
in a shallow dive. The J 32 carried four 30 mm ADEN
cannons while the A 32 ("A" stands for attack) had an armament of
four 20 mm Bofors
m/49 cannon and the Rb 04C anti-ship missile, one of the earliest of its type in
western service. The Lansen normally was fitted with two missiles but it could
also carry an additional missile. Its main role was to prevent any Soviet
invasion across Sweden's extensive coastline.
Click on
images below to see larger images
One planned use of the A 32A was to deliver nuclear warheads or chemical
weapons. Sweden had an active nuclear weapons program during the 1950s and
1960s, but no weapons were ever produced.
The A 32 Lansen was Sweden's last purpose-built attack aircraft. Throughout
the Cold War
years, the Lansen distinguished itself with a solid if unspectacular career;
Swedish pilots
often described it as pleasant to fly. Gradually, being replaced by more modern
types, the Saab 32 soldiered on into the late-1990s. (another time, from
Wikipedia)
This it is another excellent Heller kit, the armed one was a real
marvel, it takes as additional details the pilots and both basins of
weapon, since this plane was coming in clean configuration and I decided to give
some teeth to the beast ...
The lace and the armed one were spectacular and once more my gratefulnesses
to Kater for having obtained this wonderful kit (equally of old to J-29 Tunnan!)
Tigre del Aire
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