A little over four months and 20 flight hours after its June 15 maiden flight, Saab’s Gripen E has made its first supersonic flight over the Baltic. (Saab photo)
The Gripen E smart fighter flew at speeds greater than the speed of sound, at over Mach 1, as part of the ongoing flight trials programme. The purpose was to collect data from the aircraft as it achieved and sustained supersonic speed. The flight took place over the Baltic sea and the aircraft sustained supersonic speed for a number of minutes, whilst carrying out maneouvres, demonstrating the successful combination of the aircraft’s fighter design and its powerful engine.
“As Gripen pilots we are used to extreme speed but to go through the sound barrier for an aircraft’s first time is still a moment to enjoy. It is important that the aircraft handles the transition smoothly through what we call the transonic zone around the sound barrier and she certainly did, it was very smooth,” said Marcus Wandt, Test Pilot, Saab.
Check out an interview with Saab test pilot Robin Nordlander
Welcoming the news, Jonas Hjelm, Senior Vice President and head of business area Aeronautics said, “Individual milestones such as this supersonic flight demonstrate the thoroughness of our engineering approach and the validity of the modelling. It is further evidence that the Gripen E flight test programme is going extremely well, whilst the delivery schedule to our two customers remains our key focus.”
This milestone has been preceded by over 20 flying hours since the first flight back on 15 June 2017.
Saab serves the global market with world-leading products, services and solutions within military defence and civil security. Saab has operations and employees on all continents around the world. Through innovative, collaborative and pragmatic thinking, Saab develops, adopts and improves new technology to meet customers’ changing needs.
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