Saab 105 in Swedish service

The Saab 105 trainer was a private venture by Saab to build a jet trainer to replace the Vampires used by the Swedish air force in the 1950's and 1960's.

A contract was signed in 1962 and the first prototype flew in 1963.

Sk 60A

During 1966-68 148 Saab 105, designated Sk 60, was delivered to the air force where they were placed in service with the central flying school at F 5, Ljungbyhed, and the caded school F 20 at Uppsala (colocated with the F 16 wing).

This was a wholly unarmed trainer.

Sk 60B

Starting in 1970, 46 Sk 60As were converted into Sk 60B standard, giving them three hardpoints beneath each wing enabling them to operate in the light attack role.

Sk 60C

30 Sk 60As were modified into Sk 60C standard starting in 1970. This entailed the same wing and weapon modifications as on Sk 60B, with the armament options beeing either a podded 30 mm Aden gun under each wing, or a total of 12 135 mm ground attack rockets.

In addition, the nose was lengthened to give room for a panoramic reconnaissance camera.

In addition to beeing stationed at F 5 and F 20, together with Sk 60As, the Sk 60B and Sk 60C served with the F 21 wing at Luleå which had a light attack squadron.

Four seaters

Usual fit for a Sk 60 is two ejection seats, but they can be removed and four fixed seats fitted in their place.

Photo by Viktor Bodin, spring 2000.
You can read about when it was taken, in Swedish: En flygtur i SK 60.

There are two versions which can be considered to be four seaters normally, and that's the three Sk 60D, used for training and liasion which has got radios compatible with civilian air traffic, and the ten Sk 60E which in addition has a full set of civilian air navigation avionics and was used at the central flying school to train airliner students.

The SK 60D and Es are expected to be retired and sold off in the near future, perhaps along with about 10 of the A/B/C variants.

Williams FJ-44 engine

Starting in 1995, a total of 105 SK 60s will be given new engines, quiter, more powerful and more economic. Their designation will not be SK 60W, which has been used internally by Saab Military Aircraft, but remain SK 60A, B and C.

Every new designation generates lots of paperwork and thus cost a significant amount of money.

At the same time, they will be given new instruments, for example LCD attitude indicators.

They will only be used for training and liasion until about 2015. The light attack role isn't in demand any longer.

Data for Sk 60A/B/C with RM 9

Span:                    9.5 m
Length:                 11.0 m (Sk 60A/B)
Height:                  2.7 m
Take off weight:        4050 kg
Max load:                800 kg (Sk 60B/C)
Range:                  1900 km
Max speed:               750 km/h
Landing speed:           165 km/h
Max altitude:          12000 m
Engines: 2 x RM 9A, Turbomeca Aubique ~700 kp
         2 x RM 9B, Turbomeca Aubique  742 kp

Data for Sk 60A/B/C with RM 15

Most is as for RM 9-engined aircraft,
differences are:
Range:                  2470 km
Max speed:               780 km/h
Engines: 2 x RM 15, Williams FJ 44-1C  860 kp

The engines are lighter, so weights aren't
the same. Additional performance increases
also include 80 m shorter take off distance,
30% decrease in time to 6000 m, better turn
performance, 25% reduction in fuel consumption
(14% at max speed).

A good page on Saab 105/SK 60: SAAB105-S K60 in pictures and words

Export

In 1970-72 40 were exported to Austria. These had more powerful GE J85 engines at 1280 kp. The Saab 105OE as it's designated, has a top speed of 970 km/h, climb rate of 75 m/s and a maximum altitude of 13000 m.

Austrian Air Force Saab 105OE page.

Military aviation
Text last updated 1997 May 22, document last modified 2001 Jan 07 by Urban Fredriksson
Top four photos by me, Ljungbyhed 1996 Aug 25, the fifth by Viktor Bodin, bottom photo courtesy Saab Military Aircraft.

griffon@canit.se