As the Cold War covered the world with the dark cloud of impending doom, Swedish engineers began a desperate race to produce a revolutionary multi-role fighter capable of fending off any Soviet warplane.
With its unique canard design, double delta wing configuration, iconic airframe, and prominent vertical stabilizer, the Saab 37 Viggen aircraft took to the skies looking like a menacing double-winged arrow pointed right at the sun.
Blasting through the sound barrier at over Mach 2, powered by a beastly adaptation of the Pratt & Whitney JT8 turbo engine, this fighter flaunted the globe’s most remarkable lift-to-drag ratio at daring angles of attack.
But what made it extraordinary was that it was the first warplane to carry an airborne digital central computer with integrated circuits for its avionics. No aircraft could elude it, arguably making it the most advanced combat aircraft in Europe when it first took to the skies in June 1971.
In the 80s, the Viggen would get a chance to prove its high-tech equipment was not just for show.
Over the Europe-Soviet border one of America’s most sophisticated and technologically advanced spy planes, the SR-71 Blackbird had blown one of its engines. Two Viggens scrambled into action, racing against time to intercept and escort the damaged Blackbird.
It was do-or-die: reach the Blackbird before the Soviets got a chance to blow it out of the sky…