Whats the big deal about the Viggen?

Many differences. Some of them are 2.3 liter engine with 230hp, special plastic pieces (spoilers etc), special wheels and brakes, special exhaust, special seats, etc. Only 4511 Viggen was manufactured between

I think I've seen one of those. What does 'Viggen' actually mean though?

Craig.

-- Craig Ian Dewick ( snipped-for-privacy@lios.apana.org.au).

The Thunderbolt, especially those from the Thor's hammer Mjölner.

Instead of placing "the" in front of words, Swedish place letters after the word. One such ending is "en", so the basic word of Viggen is Vigg.

In Swedish a Vigg can mean two things.

• It is the name of a bird known in English as "tufted duck" (Aythya fuligula).
• It is the "bolt" part of the Swedish word for thunderbolt, "åskvigg". Åska = Thunder and Vigg = Bolt. One famous thunderbolt is the bolt created by the Norse god Thor's warhammer "Mjölner".

Btw, Viggen is also the name of a Swedish fighter aircraft built by Saab. <

The Saab 9-3 Viggen is most likely named after the Saab 37 Viggen. The Saab 37 Viggen is *not* named after the tufted duck.

It's a duck ........ 'Aythya fuligula' or 'Tufted Duck' (you can stop laughing now...)

------------------------------------------- MH '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96

There is also a sailing boat called Viggen and a certain dance.

OK, maybe not named after it but there is a relation; the small forward = wings on the SAAB 37 are known as 'canard wings'. (The SAAB 39 'Gripen' =

- Griffin - also has them).

------------------------------------------- MH '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96

I'm impressed, MH. ;)

Pete Brown

It's a duck ........ 'Aythya fuligula' or 'Tufted Duck' (you can stop laughing now...)

------------------------------------------- MH '72 97 '77 96 '78 95 '79 96

Lol - I never knew that!

To complete the story: Canard is French for duck...

On more interesting fact about the Saab JAS-37 and JAS-39: they are both powered by Volvo engines.

Mark Gerritsma

There has never been an aircraft in the Swedish airforce of the type JAS 37. We have, and had, AJ 37, SH 37, SF 37, SK 37, and JA 37 but no JAS 37. It wasn't until the 39 that they built an aircraft versatile enough to have J, A, and S on the same aircraft type.

The RM8 engine in the 37 was designed by P&W (JT 8D) and built by Volvo. The RM12 engine in the 39 was designed by GE (F404J) and built by Volvo.

Hunting, Attacking and Reconnaissance of the net produced this:

IMO, Jakt is better translated to (Hunt). Fighter is the general mission for the plane.

For the 37 the following letters are used:

J is "Jakt" or "Fighter". A is "Attack" or "Strike". SF is "Spaning Foto" or "Reconnaissance Photo". SH is "Spaning Havsövervakning" or "Reconnaissance Maritime surveillance". Sk is "Skol" or "Training".

The letters can be combined and the first letter indicates the primary role, e.g. AJ 37 and JA 37. The differences are in radar, armament, etc.

Seems we had some more variants than the five I wrote about earlier.

AJ 37, SH 37, SF 37, SK 37, JA 37, and the later rebuilds AJS 37, AJSH 37, and AJSF 37.

Searching with Google for JAS-37 gives a lot of hits, but you may be right. This wouldn't be the first time something went wrong during the naming of a plane. The Blackbird was originally designated RS-71, but later redesignated to SR-71, because some US minister made a mistake during a presentation.

built

Officially the make is stated as being Volvo. If you continue your line of thought every VAG car with a 1.9 TDI engine is powered by Audi, because they originally designed that engine.

In this case I don't care who designed it, it was just to indicate the contrast of a Saab powered by Volvo as a Viggen fact.

Mark Gerritsma

That "minister" would be President Johnson.

Bill