An odd sight...and a brutal awakening

[JohnnySweden]

Open the window at breakfast, looking down..

Convoy of Swedish Saab 35 Draken fighter jets being towed through the streets of Linköping, Sweden, in 1966.

The jets were transported from the SAAB factory at Malmslätt to the Malmen airfield, a distance of approximately 20 kilometers.

The reason they are towing is that the 3rd Wing of the Swedish Airforce was temporarily relocated from Malmslätt airbase (west of the city) to SAAB field (east of the city) due to heavy maintenance of the runways.

Most aircraft were flown, but the wing commander decided to tow a few of the jets as an excercise; MPs directing traffic, dismantling roadsigns, avoiding kerbs, you name it.

At a stoplight one of the service personnel in a towed jet ignited the engine briefly, in official accounts by mistake, awakening the whole neighborhood and shattered several windows.

No injuries was reported and thankfully (if it indeed was a mistake) nothing or nobody was located behind the jet during the incident.

 

[Area Weapon]

looks like a model? or AI version of an old photo?

 

[smartshooting]

got to be a model or AI as no cars parked anywhere... Pretty cool though

 

[JohnnySweden]

Here is the source material, certified as authentic by Wikipedia

 

[weepete]

looks like a model? or AI version of an old photo?

Old black and white photo re-colourised which is why it all looks a bit too smooth. Could be with AI, but can also be done manually in programs like photoshop, though it's not something I know how to do in detail, there is a niche of people that enjoy retouching/repairing old photos, and some like to add colour to old photos too.

 

[JohnnySweden]

Here are some more pics of the event..

 

[JohnnySweden]

The mistake start did actually occur several times during the service life of Draken and was a well known phenomenon.

In the context of the Saab 35 Draken, a "tjuvstart" (literally "false start" or "premature start") refers to a dangerous technical malfunction during the starting sequence of the aircraft's Volvo Flygmotor RM6 jet engine.

In aviation terms, this is commonly known as a hot start or a hung start.

It occurs when fuel ignites inside the engine before the compressor has reached a high enough rotational speed (RPM) to sustain proper airflow.

 

[Area Weapon]

Wasn't questioning anyones authenticity, just the first photo looked weird, so wondered if someone had made a model recreation at some point and then a photo of that had been mixed in with the story etc

 

[Mark Palmer]

As I understand it, Sweden designs thier aircraft and support systems to be very mobile, able to deploy from any straight road long and wide enough and to use bridges as temporary deployment hangars. Quite sensible considering air supremacy is the key to any battleground and airfields would be one of the first targets in a conflict. That was also one of the reasons for the Harriers design brief. One has to wonder what would happen over here now, without Harriers and only a handful of F35s capable of STOL/VSTOL ..... Typhoons on the M1?
Very cool pictures

 

[Dudd I]

Truely a case of "Here be Dragons"
Great looking aircraft with great history.

 

[Inca]

Agreed, one of the best looking single seaters of any country.

 

[JohnnySweden]

My son is serving in the Swedish Air Force and it's a true paradigm shift ongoing now..

Probably the JAS E will the last jet fighter made in house - now the ability to produce huge amount of inexpensive autonomous drones are top priority.

Sweden has provided a huge support for Ukraine and the collaboration have increased our knowledge of this field substantially, hopefully gaining capacity for improvement in guerilla warfare using drones and the ability to warfare according to the same principles as Iran carries on, utilizing a vast area and difficult terrain in order to increase the likelihood to not get assaulted in the first place.

 

[Inca]

Drones appear to be the future, I hope as much effort is going into the technology to knock them down as there is in putting them up.

 

[JohnnySweden]

Drones appear to be the future, I hope as much effort is going into the technology to knock them down as there is in putting them up.

Their main advantage is just that - easy to send off and difficult to bring down.

A blanket of dense forests are a perfect wall of protection while one can release hordes of own drones against the enemy arriving across open sea with no cover.

Drones can also act without roads and has a low requirement of fuel infrastructure.

They are really embraced as a part of US in the Scandinavian defence tactics.

 

[Wing Commander]

I am envious..... not a pothole to be seen.

Those aeroplanes would be wrecked if they had to go on British roads.

 

[Mark Palmer]

Their main advantage is just that - easy to send off and difficult to bring down.

A blanket of dense forests are a perfect wall of protection while one can release hordes of own drones against the enemy arriving across open sea with no cover.

Drones can also act without roads and has a low requirement of fuel infrastructure.

They are really embraced as a part of US in the Scandinavian defence tactics.

As both the Ukraine and Iranian conflicts are proving, Asymmetric warfare is how future battles will likely be fought, unless a huge and costly (in lives and hardware) land invasion is undertaken. Cheap drones knocked up absolutely anywhere and launched from absolutely anywhere are impossible to intercept on a 100% basis and as manufacture, storage and launch sites aren't defined, impossible to stop at source, only large numbers of boots on the ground with the high number of casualties that entails could over run drone operations. Hopefully the lessons being learned in Ukraine in particular will be fed into ours and all Nato members.

 

[JohnnySweden]

I am envious..... not a pothole to be seen.

Those aeroplanes would be wrecked if they had to go on British roads.

No pilot is interested in bringing down a jet at 300 km/h on a road with potholes....

Actually the roads intended for take-off and landing fighter jets do command certain care and upkeep. They are regularly monitored by armed divisions supervising them, an experience some youngsters encountered while they added marking and lines using spraycans in order to arrange a spontaneous drag-race a beautiful summers evening, a few years ago outside Lidköping.

 

[crissdee]

Old black and white photo re-colourised which is why it all looks a bit too smooth. Could be with AI, but can also be done manually in programs like photoshop, though it's not something I know how to do in detail, there is a niche of people that enjoy retouching/repairing old photos, and some like to add colour to old photos too.

The father of my best friend growing up made a very good living at doing that. He even achieved a degree of fame in the industry, and had a studio off Regent St.