Pilot Replicas Aircraft 1/48 SAAB J29F Fliegende Tonne Austrian Fighter Kit

In 1946, the Swedish Air Force ordered three prototypes of the new jet fighter, the SAAB J 29. The initial prototype of the SAAB 29 Tunnan (Flying Barrel) made its first flight on September 1st 1948, with the British test pilot Robert Moore at the controls. The Saab engineering team led by Lars Brising had been allowed to review German aeronautical research documents from WW2 which clearly displayed that delta and swept-wing designs had the effect of “reducing drag dramatically” as the aircraft approached the sound barrier.

In July of 1961 the first 15 of total 30 refurbished ex-Swedish Air Force J 29Fs was delivered to the Austrian Air Force to form 1 st JaBoStaffel (yellow tail codes) at Hörsching Linz Airport. Due to lack of infrastructure in 1961, 5 of the J29s were temporarily based at Schwechat, the international airport of Vienna and 10 J29s were based at Klagenfurt airport. From the 28th of May 1962, Hörsching was the new home base of the 1st JaBoStaffel and their J 29s.

The second and last batch of 15 J 29F to join the 2. Staffel/ Jabogeschwader (red tail codes) was delivered from January to June 1964 and served at Graz-Thalerhof airport as reconnaissance and aerial surveillancev duty. 10 (maybe 12) of the J 29F in the second batch were delivered with a photo pod with 3 70mm Vinten cameras installed in the left side gun bay.

The principal role for the Austrain J29s was close air support using the 4 inbuilt 30mm Bofors guns. No bombs or rockets were used in the active role in Austria.

After 10 years and a total of 13205 flying hours, the Austrian Air force retired their J 29Fs in 1972.

This is a high quality plastic kit model made out of steel molds. Surface details with exquisite rivet details. The kit contains photo etched parts as well as high quality decals including full stencils printed by Cartograf & Boa. Full color printed ”colors and markings”instructions included.