SAAB 21
fighter-bomber aircraft family
The SAAB 21 is a Swedish single-seat low-wing monoplane fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by SAAB. Its twin boom fuselage with a pusher engine gives the aircraft an unusual appearance.
Work began at SAAB following a Swedish Air Force decision to embark on a major expansion programme in preparation for the possibility of being drawn into the Second World War. The company designed a monoplane twin-boom aircraft, powered by a single Daimler-Benz DB 605B engine that was positioned at the rear of the fuselage nacelle, driving a pusher propeller. This arrangement allowed guns to be carried in the aircraft's nose while providing the pilot with good visibility. An ejection seat was adopted to enable the pilot to bail out without hitting the propeller.
On 30 July 1943, the 21 performed its maiden flight and on 1 December 1945, the first examples of the J 21A-1 were introduced to service. It was quickly followed by the improved J 21A-2, which featured heavier armament, and the J 21A-3 fighter-bomber.
With jet-powered aircraft rapidly overtaking piston-powered aircraft, in 1947 SAAB produced a conversion of the 21 using the British de Havilland Goblin jet engine, the resulting airframe being designated the SAAB 21R. Along with the Soviet Yakovlev Yak-15, the SAAB 21 was one of only two jet fighters to be successfully converted from piston power to jet power.
The 21 was replaced in the mid-1950s after less than 10 years of service by the similarly configured de Havilland Vampire and the Saab 29 Tunnan.
Design and development
Background
SAAB was carrying out design studies during the late 1930s into possible options for a new fighter aircraft.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q326931. The Library of Congress control number is sh2010015524. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1945 and 1947.
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This entry incorporates text from “SAAB 21” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.