Dragon over Reno

Air Classics, Dec 2003

HIGH-PERFORMANCE JET FIGHTER MAKES ITS FIRST AIRSHOW APPEARANCE

Skip Holm was busy making some sketches on a napkin as we sat in a restaurant. "What are you doing?," I asked. "Trying to figure out what sort of airshow I am going to do in the SAAB Draken," said a preoccupied Skip. "I don't want it to look like that Starfighter show last year a pass then five minutes of nothing followed by another pass." Skip was scheduled to fly the mighty Draken at Reno 2003 - like he wasn't busy enough flying Dago Red and the Turner Racer - and he wanted to make the display good for the crowd.

SAAB has always made unusual looking aircraft and the delta Draken (Dragon) is no exception. Design study for the supersonic fighter started way back in 1949. The double Mach aircraft started out flight testing with a scaled-down aircraft powered by a piston engine. The prototype first flew on 25 October 1955 and the Draken entered Swedish service in March 1960. An extremely successful tactical fighter, the Draken also served with Denmark, Finland, and Austria - the Austrian Air Force is the last to operate the type and they will be retiring their aircraft in 2004.

Around a dozen Drakens are in the United States and a couple are owned by California businessman Greg Forbes - including the example on these pages. Knowing that Skip has built up quite a few Draken hours (around 120), Greg contracted the test pilot and he has been flying Greg's machines ever since.

"The Draken is a real fast machine," said Skip. "Slick is the best word for it. With the nose pointed down and the motor in idle, it will go supersonic. In fact, it will go supersonic faster than any other jet I've flown. The double-delta wing planform is similar to the F-16XL test bed. Also, the pilots seat will recline 30-deg and was way ahead of its time - we did not get that until the F-16.

"The Draken is a nice flying jet and it is basically a motor with flight systems attached. Each day at Reno, after I flew the Draken. I would ask people what looked good and what didn't adn by Sunday I had finalized the routine. I would takeoff with 550-gal of fuel and recover with 70-gal. The nose does not fall dramatically during maneuvers and I could do inverted flight or multiple rolls without the nose hardly moving. The pilot has to be careful because if you point the nose towards the ground at or below 10,000-ft AGL you are not going to recover. Half of the display was flown in heavy buffet (stall) but the throttle is extremely responsive. I flew most of the display in the 350-400-kt range. It really is a delightful airplane."