Saab 37 Viggen
The external appearance of the Saab Viggen is rather unique, like other fighters designed by the Swedish company. This successor to the Draken is a single engine fighter with a canard configuration. The double delta wings have a larger sweep angle at the outer wings than the inner wings, so the opposite of the Draken. The canards directly in front of the delta wings are quite big. Below are long, nearly oval air intakes. They feed an engine with a thrust reverser. When deployed the air is led through holes in the sides and bottom of the rear fuselage. Another unique characteristic is the main landing gear with tandem wheels on each leg. The vertical stabiliser is nearly triangular and with a slightly forward swept trailing edge. All in all, the Viggen is easy to identify.
Different versions
The different versions of the Saab Viggen are characterised by:
- the number of canopies
- the shape of the nose
- the presence of a cannon
Details will follow later.
Confusion possible with
Saab 39 Gripen
Like the Viggen the Gripen has a canard configuration and the vertical stabilisers have about the same shape. However, the Gripen has smaller canards and no double delta wings. Also the main gears have a single wheel and the air intakes are about rectangular.
Dassault Rafale
Apart from being a twin engine fighter the Dassault Rafale looks more similar to the Gripen than the Viggen. The other differences are the two oval intakes being placed diagonally at the side the fuselage and the single wheel main landing gear.
Atlas Cheetah
This aircraft, and other Dassault Mirage derivatives like the IAI Kfir and Mirage 3RS, have semi circular air intakes with a shock cone in the middle. Also the vertical stabiliser's trailing edge is swept. Finally, they have only single delta wings.