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General information | |
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Type | Reconnaissance-dive bomber |
National origin | Sweden |
Manufacturer | SAAB |
Primary users | Swedish Air ForceImperial Ethiopian Air Force Royal Danish Air Force |
Number built | 326 (including 2 prototypes) |
History | |
Manufactured | 1941–1944 |
Introduction date | March 1942 |
First flight | 18 May 1940 |
Retired | 1968 (Ethiopia) |
Ihe design chosen was a conventional mid-wing cantilever monoplane with a long greenhouse canopy and a single radial engine in the nose. Control surfaces were covered in fabric but the remainder was stressed-skin duraluminum. It could be fitted with wheels or skiis, both of which retracted straight to the rear along the underside of the wing, leaving prominent fairings, and when fitted with wheels the undercarriage doors could be used as dive brakes.[3] A retractable tailwheel was provided. A floatplane version was built in small numbers for coastal reconnaissance to replace the obsolete Svenska S 5, with massive fairings joining the floats to the wings where the wheels would have been. To maintain stability small vertical fins were added to the horizontal stabilizer. The wings were reinforced so that it could be used as a dive bomber and bomb racks were provided under the wings, along with a small bomb bay below the cockpit, although some examples used a conventional rack on the centreline, while on the bomber versions, a crutch was fitted to swing the bomb clear of the aircraft in vertical diving attacks, when the bomb could otherwise have passed through the propeller. The reconnaissance versions lacked the crutch. Split flaps broken into four segments were fitted to the underside trailing edge of the wing..
The first flight was on 18 May 1940 and first deliveries of dive bombers to the Flygvapnet began in March 1942, while deliveries of reconnaissance versions began in June 1942, and the type was operational by September 1942 when the first exercises were carried out. Problems immediately arose with wing failures, and additional modifications were needed before it could be cleared for dive bombing, which remained limited to shallow attacks thereafter. The final aircraft was delivered on 31 August 1944.
Ceiling
Combat RANGE
Aircraft Speed
Max Crew
In 1940, serial building of 322 aircraft was ordered. They were to be built in five variations; S 17BL and S 17BS for reconnaissance duties, and B 17A, B 17B and B 17C for bombing duties. The letters A-C designated the different engines that could be obtained. Sometimes, engines could be obtained from Italy. Otherwise,
The SAAB 17 was a reliable aircraft with good performance. However, it had a tendency to ground loop at landing.
To maximise the strenght of the wing, it lacked recesses for the landing gears. The gears were folded backward-upward and were fitted with stream-lined covers