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J35 Draken


Slater

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Looking at the profile of this arrowhead-shaped fighter, it wouldn't appear to very agile in a dogfight. In practice, could it engage other aircraft of the time in a close-in fight with reasonable success?

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Hello Slater,

Draken was an "Energy Game" fighter. This means that you couldn't allow the air speed to drop (it was a super stall aircraft). In practice this meant that all maneuvering had to be vertical. Air-to-air combat in level flight had to be planned carefully and turning radius could have been hundreds of kilometers depending on the air speed and altitude.

We have photos of SR-71 here in Finland that were taken by the QRA Draken (or "Rysky" as it was affectionately known) pilot.

Best Regards,

Antti

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Hi!

Delta-wing aircraft, especially tail-less delta, are susceptible to energy drain during turns, especially early cold war jets with low thrust engines. During turns angle-of-attack increases, which combined with a high wing surface results in high drag. Mirage family of tail-less deltas is no different, although Mirage 2000 compensates that to some degree with more powerful engine. Cheers

Jure

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So Draken was a pure interceptor more than anything else?

Yes, exept for the Danish ones. these were for the fighter-bomber role.

O, there were also some recon. versions.

Cheers,

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Hello Slater!

It was indeed designed as a pure fighter like so many jets on those days. The biggest fear was high flying Russian bombers. Demand for the day was great Rate of Climb and speed to reach your target quickly. Later came the J35E tactical reconnaissance variant.

Of course you could engage the adversary in dog fight as far as you kept certain restrictions in mind. For example flying at 10.000 meters you could pull 1,8 Gs before the buffeting started. At this point your AoA (Angle of Attack) was around 15 units and Mi (indicated Mach number) between 0,7 and 0,9. You could then tighten the turn and increase G load but that had to be done gently. If done properly there was no negative effect on maneuvering. Any pull that took your AoA to 18-20 unit area was a one way ticket to the trouble (the aircraft's slide slip increased and the aircraft tended to rise it's nose quickly; result: super stall).

Draken was also a true aircraft for QRA duty. In many cases while the pilot was strapping in and running through his pre-flight checks the armourer loaded the 30 mm gun. You could then taxi 80 km/h on snow covered taxiways without a problem. You were airborne in minutes. When the Hornets arrived their pilots were still running their pre-flight checks when Draken landed back to base. Draken was also easy to operate from high way strips. Because the air intakes were high it wasn,t prone to FOD and it was easy to steer because on the ground a steering wheel was used instead of rudder pedals.

BR,

Antti

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I thought it worth mentioning that the August issue of "Combat Aircraft" magazine has a very good article on the Viggen and a "Pilot Profile" on what it like to fly the aircraft. Within the Pilot Profile there are a limited number of comments contrasting the Viggen with the Draken, namely the Draken's much larger turning radius and the latter's ability to perform the "Cobra" manoeuvre which, other than at low speed, the Viggen couldn't do without risking structural damage.

There's not much more written about the Draken than that above I'm afraid.

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