14 Dec 06
Saab
To this day, the design team responsible for Saab-branded cars have a strict set of criteria: the cars have to reflect the company's aircraft heritage, with the shapes and outlines of the windscreens, bonnets, cockpit-influenced dashboards and instrumentation all meant to have an aeroplane feel, as recently demonstrated by the Aero-X concept coupe. These days - as Saab struggles to define itself as a distinctive brand within the General Motors empire - this is more about marketing than anything else, but for decades Saabs really were, as the ads put it, Born From Jets.
Founded in 1937 as part of the Swedish government's drive to establish a domestic aeronautical industry, Saab stands for Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, or 'Swedish aeroplane manufacturing'. Its first factory was opened in Trollhatten, north of Gothenburg, in 1938, and began to produce the German Junkers Ju86K bomber under licence as the Saab B3.
Saab 17
A year later, Saab took over rival firm ASJA (Aktiebolaget Svenska Jarnvagsverkstaderna) and its Linkoping facility, where it was building a version of the American Northrop 8A-1 (B5). Both ASJA and Saab had been working on a reconnaissance aircraft for the Swedish Flygvapen (airforce), and ASJA's plans evolved into the Saab 17, a single-engined light bomber; 322 of these were built, with Swedish-built Pratt & Whitney, Bristol Pegasus or Piaggio engines, entering service with the Flygvapen in 1941. The subsequent Saab 18 followed in summer 1942, a heavier twin-engined plane with Daimler-Benz engines, made in bomber, reconnaissance, attack and dive bomber versions. The last of the 242 built remained in service until 1956. Next up was the Saab 21 interceptor/strike plane, which first flew in 1943 (299 built), and which showcased a radical pusher propeller and twin-boom tail design.
Saab 92001
Civil aircraft followed: the twin-engined 90 Scandia, which could seat up to 36 plus a five-strong crew, first flew in 1946, but just six were ordered by Scandinavian Airlines, and only 18 in total were made. The 91 Safir was rather more successful: a single-engined trainer plane with De Havilland or Avco Lycoming engines, 323 were made and delivered to 21 countries, serving with the Swedish, Norwegian and Ethiopian airforces.
Saab was about to enter the jet age, but there was one more non-jet to arrive in the 1940s: the company's first car. Fifteen aeroplane engineers were seconded to the project, producing a car which was completely unique: a small teardrop-shaped front-wheel-drive vehicle with a transversely mounted two-stroke engine and a strong construction with a safety cage. Developed in the Linkoping wind tunnel and with its structure clearly derived from plane fuselage design, the 92001 prototype was developed into the 92; around 20,000 of these were built in 1949-56.
