third prototype was armed with four 20mm
automatic guns. Various diferent aerodynamic
arrangements were tested, such as air
brakes being installed either upon the fuselage
or on the wings aft of the rear spar; along with
both combined and conventional aileron/
lap arrangements. The light test program
revealed that the J 29 prototypes were capable
of reaching and exceeding the maximum
permissible Mach number for which they had
been designed; the light performance igures
gathered were found to be typically in excess
of the predicted values. In 1948, production of
the type commenced, and; in May 1951, initial
operational deliveries of production aircraft
were received by Bråvalla Air Force Wing (F
13). The Tunnan was produced in ive principal
variants, these being the J 29A (the irst model
to enter service), J 29B and J 29E for the ighter
mission, the S 29C for the reconnaissance
mission, and the afterburner-equipped J
29F ighter, which was the inal variant. From
1950 to 1956, at which point manufacturing
was terminated, a total of 661 Tunnans were
completed, making it the largest production run
for any Saab aircraft. The crash record in early
service was poor, mainly due to the inexperience
with swept-winged aircraft and the lack of a
two-seat, dual control Tunnan trainer variant,
and this meant that Swedish ighter pilots
could only be trained using two-seat variants of
the de Havilland Vampire before going solo in
a Tunnan. Ninety-nine pilots were killed during
military practice lights in Sweden. In May 1967,
the ighter versions of the Tunnan was retired
from combat service, however, a number ofaircraft were retained and reconigured for
use as countermeasures trainers and for target
towing duties into the 1970s
On 27 January 1961, the Swedish Government
granted the Air Board permission to sell ifteen
J 29F Tunnans to Saab for restoration and resale
to the Austrian Air Force. In 1962, government
approval for the sale of a further ifteen J 29F
aircraft to Austria was granted, and this second
batch received modiications in order that a
specialized camera pod could be installed in the
port side of the nose of each aircraft, requiring
the removal of the two nose-mounted cannons
to accommodate this. This interchangeable
camera pod, the cameras of which could be
moved in-light via controls installed in the
cockpit, took roughly 30 minutes to exchange.
Due to limitations imposed by the Austrian State
Treaty of 1955, these aircraft were never armed
with air-to-air missiles. The Tunnan remained in
service with the Austrian Air Force until 1972.
The Tunnan was the irst Swedish jet aircraft
to perform combat operations. In September
1961, in response to an appeal by the UnitedNations (UN) for military support, an initial force
of ive J 29Bs were stationed in the Republic of
Congo as a contribution to a UN peacekeeping
mission (ONUC) in the region, organized as
the F 22 Wing of the Swedish Air Force. It was
subsequently reinforced by four more J 29Bs
and two S 29C photo reconnaissance Tunnans
in 1962. The J 29s were the only combat aircraft
at the disposal of the UN, the J 29Bs dispatched
receiving the ‘UN’ identifying markings upon
their fuselages. Most of the missions involved
attacking ground targets with internal cannons
as well as unguided rockets. No aircraft were lost
in action despite large amounts of ground ire.
Consensus of the crews and foreign observers
was that the Tunnans capabilities were
exceptional. The only aircraft lost was by a high-
ranking oicer who made a trial run and crashed
during an aborted take-of. When ONUC was
terminated in 1964, some of the Swedish aircraft
were destroyed at their base, since they were
no longer needed at home and the cost of
retrieving them was deemed excessive.(^14) COMBAT ZONE – SAAB J 29 TUNNAN COMBFIGHTING AT ZONECOLOURS WWW.MODELAIRCRAFTMAG.COM