Saab Draken WHIF Ideas

[Weaver]

May's Aeroplane magazine has a big article on the Draken, which includes a list of countries to whom sales attempts were made, but failed:

Switzerland (got as far as a J35H (H for Helvetica) demonstrator in 1959, Mirage III chosen instead)
Venezuela (F-5 selected instead, 1971)
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Chile
West Germany
Malaysia
Norway
Singapore
Tunisia


Got to be some inspiration for whiffy colour schemes in there......

[GTX]

I wouldn't mind doing one of Hasegawa's new 1/48 J-35 Drakens in RAAF Mirage IIIO colours:

Either Standard camo or ARDU Fanta Can:



Maybe I should do both?

Regards,

Greg

[raafif]

Hi GTX, I tried to do both the Viggen & Draken in those colours last year (standard & ARDU) but couldn't get any decals from the 2 aftermarket manufacturers (Hawkeye & Roo).  Know where there's a decal guy who actually answers customer orders ??

[KJ_Lesnick]

GTX,

I really like your Draken with the raked inlets...

[Mossie]

I've heard people talk for ages about a Draken painted in a trial splinter camouflage but say there's no evidence to back it up.  Well, I found it on Airliners.net.  Could be old news, but it's new to me!  I've seen a model of it at the Nationals, always assumed it was semi-speculative.

Original pic here:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Sweden---Air/Saab-J35B-Draken/1594296/L/&sid=7e4614d91f925115514fd510a7ef9a95

[ysi_maniac]

Thinking in this project in service: nose intake Draken.
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,25922.msg389153.html#msg389153
Would it have evolved like MiG-21 in case a better/bigger radar installed? A bigger protruding nose cone?
http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,29716.msg484412.html#msg484412
What do you think?

[PR19_Kit]

The original intake configuration for the Saab 210 L'il Draken would look pretty good scaled up to the full size version to my mind. And not that difficult to model either...........

(Oh hell, here we go for yet ANOTHER project!)

[JayBee]

Good on yer Kit.
If anyone can do it, you can. 

Jim

[icchan]

The original intake configuration for the Saab 210 L'il Draken would look pretty good scaled up to the full size version to my mind. And not that difficult to model either...........

Do it with the F-105 intakes!   

Also, I admit I had not seen this thread with the Thudtakes when i came up with mine, but clearly the design just screams to be done - and even for the same reason, evolving off the Lansen's look.  Though I put a MiG-21 tail on mine...

[rickshaw]

Super-Draken - The Saab 36 Nidhögg.

[Dizzyfugu]

I've heard people talk for ages about a Draken painted in a trial splinter camouflage but say there's no evidence to back it up.  Well, I found it on Airliners.net.  Could be old news, but it's new to me!  I've seen a model of it at the Nationals, always assumed it was semi-speculative.

Original pic here:
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Sweden---Air/Saab-J35B-Draken/1594296/L/&sid=7e4614d91f925115514fd510a7ef9a95

AFAIK, this one has been a one-of-a-kind and an instructional airframe, not a service aircraft. But it suits the Draken well.

[Pellson]

AFAIK, this one has been a one-of-a-kind and an instructional airframe, not a service aircraft. But it suits the Draken well.

Not quite.

Two airframes (both J35B) were repainted in the then brand new splinter camouflage and flown operationally for about a year. The objective was to test the very theoretically researched camo pattern in field operations before applying allover the fleet. This was ca 1975 and as the results from the tests were that while it definitely was seen as a better camouflage than the existing bluegrey/olivegreen scheme, the cost to repaint all Drakens was deemed excessive and thus, they and also the remaining SAAB 32 Lansen (mainly recce S32C and target/ECM J32D/E) were left in their respective previous schemes. Interestingly enough, also the SAAB 105 trainers that always had a second operational role as recce/strike a/c, were left in their existing schemes despite the fact that they have survived until this day.

The brand new SAAB AJ37 Viggens, however, until then left in bare metal, were rapidly coloured up in accordance with the new scheme. Also, the Swedish Army and Navy subsequently recamoed their respective equipment, the navy's colours however being slightly more grey-brownish as that fitted better in the rocky archipelagean terrain where they should hide. See pic below



Army equipment initially used exactly the same scheme as the air force. However, later on, it was found that the brown patches really werent needed as mud and dirt rapidly delivered as much brown on the operational vehicles as ever wanted and thus, for reason of simplification, the brown was omitted leaving green/dark green/black in the pattern.

[Dizzyfugu]

Ah - just ask the experts! That's really helpful, busting a personal myth. Thanks a lot, pellson 

[Pellson]

Ah - just ask the experts! That's really helpful, busting a personal myth. Thanks a lot, pellson 

NP. I learn something from someone almost every visit I make..   

[Weaver]

Just looking at Drakens and this modest proposal occured to me.

One of the problems with the Draken was it's small forward fuselage, giving a tight cockpit and a small radar. The fuselage tapers from the point where the intakes join it, which roughly corresponds to the cockpit pressure bulkhead, where I presume there's a major joint in the fuselage. It therefore seems reasonable to me to rebuild a Draken with a new cockpit section with parallel sides, thus giving more cockpit space and a larger front pressure bulkhead, which would allow a larger radar to be fitted.

The seat may well have to be raised and the cockpit bulged to maintain vision over a longer nose during landing, but that would have the benefit of improving all-round vision for air combat. The increased side area would need more fin area to compensate, but there's already a solution for that: the two-seaters had a pair of ventral fins fitted under the outer wing section. That would seem to have preculded the use of outer wing pylons, however I see no reason why similar, or even larger fins couldn't be fitted under the inner wing section, aft of the undercarriage bays.

Here's a rough version, with a regular Draken at the top to compare: