robban75

Beautiful planes, beautiful scenery. :)

Sorry, not able to do 1920x1080. :cry:

Pretty bird. :)

Love the acceleration at 7:47. From 400km/h to 600km/h in about 5 seconds. And from M 0.8 to M 0.9 in 4 seconds. :)

Spoke to a former JA 37 pilot(a friend of the family) about this half roll maneuver and he said it is tall tale and that he'd never dared to apply it in real life. He said the Viggen had better turn performance in comparison to the J 35 Draken or F-4 Phantom. Max allowable AoA for the JA 37 was 24 degrees, but it was possible to exceed this. During test flights 23 deg/AoA was performed with the engine at idle @ an alt of 11 km. This AoA performance can not be applied to the RM8A however. :)

Congrats to the winners! :) Beautiful screenshots! :cheer3nc:

Laughlin, Bullhead. :) MiG-21 over Vegas. :)

Yes, it really is! Hopefully one day we'll see it in DCS. It is a true adversary to the MiG-21. These two often met each other over the Baltic sea during the cold war. And in Finland they were stablemates. :)

Thanks man! :) Yeah, I'll do that on future screenshots! :thumbup:

Kinda slow here so I thought I'd post some pics of these swedish beauties.

Thanks everyone! I'm glad you all like the photos. :)

Don't know if this has been posted on this forum, but it's a nice read. It mostly describes the JA 37 variant, but interesting nonetheless. :) https://www.milavia.net/specials/iv_viggen/

The original requirements were: Main usage, a single seat aircraft for attack, fighter and reconnaisance roles. First and foremost an attack aircraft with limited capabilities in the fighter role. Basic type: single seat, single engine aircraft with twin engine safety, good field performance as well as ease of maintenance. STOL-performance. Being able operate from straight stretches of rural highways only 500 meters long even during winter. Low level combat range 400km, carrying 2x Rb 304. Low alt performance Mach 1.0 at ground level. The ability to take off and land within 500 meters was probably the main factors in shaping the aircrafts overall design. Large powerful engine with an thrust reverser. Huge wing area with flap equipped canards. :)

Just a few more. :)

Thanks guys! I'm glad you like them! :) @mattebubben. I agree. The four tone splinter scheme is the best look for the Viggen. However, I doubt we'll see G52 wearing the "fields and meadows" anytime soon.

Can I post these here? :joystick: These photos have been taken by myself at various airshows in Sweden. Aaaand... soon to be airborn as well? :pilotfly:

I've noticed this as well. At subsonic speeds the elevons should only point upwards(very briefly) when the pitch is initiated. After that they will aid in trimming/stabilizing the turn rate by adding lift behind the CoG. This allows for a maximum usage of the wing area.

If my memory serves me correctly, there should be a switch in the cockpit labeled war/peace. The Gripen has one also and it is located on the right side panel slightly behind the pilot. It is tied with a very thin copper wire which locks it in peace mode. Forcing the switch to war mode boosts(at least) engine and radar performance. I don't remember by how many percent though. Anyone here to shine a light on this? :)

Yeah, the entire interview is published in the book I quoted above. :) And yes, he really was noticably offended by having to fly from the rear seat. :D I can understand him though. He was mostly negative in the interview but there were some positives. He liked the power to weight ratio, how stable it was in flight and that it was very easy to fly. :thumbup: Another interesting story is about the "wacka" maneuver. It's basically a cobra as far as I understand it. The pilot explains that he first encountered it when dogfighting a J 35 Draken. He was almost ready to take make a kill when the Draken in front of him swiftly raised its nose and with the sudden speed loss swooshed by him. He later asked the Draken pilot about it and decided to try it himself. The Draken pilots never had to worry about over stressing the airframe, the Draken could withstand anything. With the Viggen I had to be more carfeul. I entered the maneuver when the speed was around 350km/h. Stick full back, rapid nose up. Barely 4G, angle of attack probably around 45-50 degrees. The maneuver was easy to perform. Max allowable AoA for the AJ 37 was 18 degrees. However it was quite easy to make a half roll with AoA of 27 degrees. It was important to be in full zone 3 burner during the maneuver.

Something that comes up several times in the book "System 37 Viggen" is the brute force of the engine and the acceleration it provided at zone 3 afterburner. :) One pilot describes the performance on dry thrust as being not too impressive. Zone 1 was used to maintain combat speed when heavily loaded with bombs and missiles. Zone 2 was used for acceleration, and on take off. Zone 3 on the other hand, is were stuff really started happening. The word accelerate doesn't quite describe it. The Viggen bolts(correct word?) away! Using zone 3 on take off you rotate after 400m, and the end of the runway is passed at 800km/h. A km later you have Mach 0,8. You pull up at 4-5 G while the speed continue to increase to Mach 0,9. The climb angle is now close to 80 degrees, at 6,000m it starts to ease out so that at 10,000m it is a mere 30 degrees. On a cold winters day the time from take off to 10,000m took less than 90 seconds! With 50% fuel and zone 3 the acceleration is so strong that keeping your head from touching the head rest was quite difficult. After pull-up the climb angle had to be no less than 85 degrees. Even the slightest lowering of the nose and a transonic warning would go off(yellow light) following supersonic speed.