The Saab 37 Viggen fighter jet aircraft was developed as Sweden wanted to stay neutral as much as possible during the Cold War between NATO and the WarsawPact. The J-37 Viggen had a high speed and a good take-off and landing field capability. It got a pecular design with a delta wing and a conventional canard, this being a small wing in front of the main wing. Design work was carried out from about 1960 to 1966, with the prototype flying February 1967. The engine was a licensed built P&W JT8D engine from Volvo, the RM8 with afterburner. Several Viggen versions were developed that included roles of all-weather fighter-interceptor, ground-attack and photo-reconnaissance. Also a two-seat SK-37 trainer was developed. Saab manufactured the Viggen between 1970 and 1990. It was only used by the Swedish Air Force and included the later much modernized JA-37 JaktViggen that emerged in 1980.
Saab AJ-37 Viggen
This AJ-37 Viggen is located at the museum Aeroseum, near GÖTEBORG in Sweden. Seen August 2012. It is inside a former mountain hangar of the former Swedish Airforce wing F 9 Säve.
Photographed by Peter Booij , (C) Copyright IPMS Nederland
This AJSH-37 Viggen has serial 37901, code CN: 37-901 and is in a scheme of the Swedish Air Force Unit F21. The AJSH variant is a photo reconnaissance version, which makes use a a photo pod and not the photo nose, used in other photo Viggen variants.The aircraft code: 51 and has a splitter camouflage.
It arrived in 2006 in the Dutch museum Aviodrome at Lelystad (The Netherlands).
Photographed July 2013 by Meindert de Vreeze , (C) Copyright IPMS Nederland
Viggen trainer SK-37
This two seat SK-37 "Skol" trainer version of the Viggen has no radar and reduced fuel capacity. Some 17 aircraft were manufactured in the early 1970s. This aircraft has serial "37808" and is on display at the Musee de l'Air en de l'Espace at le Bourget, Paris. It is rather worn but shows details.
Photographed 2016 by Meindert de Vreeze, (C) Copyright IPMS Nederland
In 1/72 scale many kits were issued many years ago like from Airfix, Heller including a two seater, Hasegawa. Tarangus has a 1/48 Viggen.