Airfix Model World
{74}www.airfixmodelworld.com {75}Airfix Model World
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SAAB JAS-39C GRIPENIN FOCUS
SAAB JAS-39C GRIPENJan P. Forsgren provides a snapshot
of Saab’s lightweight fighter
B
uilt to replace Sweden’s
Draken and Viggen, Gripen
was designed to be a cost-
effective, easily maintained
and deployed multi-role fighter
and reconnaissance asset.A contract for five prototypes
and an initial production batch
of 30 aircraft (and an option
for a further 110) was signed in- The chosen aircraft, named
in Swedish after the legendary
half-lion, half-eagle creature
the Griffon, was a single-seat,
single-engined, fly-by-wire
and aerodynamically unstable
design, with canard foreplanes.
Power comes courtesy of a Volvo
Flygmotor RM12 engine; the
license-built derivative of General
Electric’s GE F404-400.
It can take off and land in lessthan 1,969ft (600m), but unlike
the earlier Viggen, Gripen does
not use thrust-reversing although
its canards can be tilted to act
as airbrakes on landing. Three-
quarters the empty weight of
an F-16C and about half the
empty weight of the Viggen,
Gripen is a true lightweight
fighter. The airframe features Rafeal’s Litening navigation and targeting pod is carried by Swedish Gripens at F17
Wing, Ronneby. (Edwin Borremans)
The Gripen' C's range can be extended by air-to-air refuelling. (Jan P. Forsgren)Gripen Cs, such as these from
Sweden’s F17 Wing, exercise
often with NATO assets as part
of that organisation’s Baltic Air
Policing mission. This protects
the airspace of Latvia, Estonia
and Lithuania from foreign aircraft
probing. (Edwin Borremans)Lion
Meets
Eagle
“Gripen was designed to
be a cost-effective‚ easily
maintained and deployed
multi-role fighter”
Gripen C 9240, of the Czech Air Force’s 211 Squadron, is seen at
Ostrava in the Czech Republic. This is one of the aircraft depicted
by Revell’s new 1/72 kit, built in this issue. (AirTeamImages)74-75_Gripen Info.CC.indd 74 17/03/2015 14:44