SAAB

Saab 210 Lilldraken – Experimental aircraft

By developing the Saab 35 Draken, Saab made a bold move by choosing a double delta wing configuration.

Due to limited knowledge of this configuration, it was decided to build a special test-bed in order to improve the project safety. The experimental aircraft was scaled down to 70 percent of the planned size and was given the designation Saab 210 Lill-Draken. The intention was primarily to test the flight characteristics at low speeds and to test the assumptions made before undertaking full-scale construction. The maiden flight on 21 January 1952 was made by Bengt Olow.

SAAB-210-Lilldraken

Continue reading after the ad

The Saab 210 performed around 1,000 test flights over four years. The results provided valuable experience during development of the Saab 35 Draken.

Saab 210 is the first and only experimental aircraft to have been developed throughout Saab’s history. Lill-Draken is now on display at the Air Force museum in Linköping, Sweden.

Goran Aničić
the authorGoran Aničić
For over 15 years, Goran Aničić has been passionately focused on Saab automobiles and everything related to them. His initial encounter with Saab cars took place back in 2003 when the first Saab 9-3 and sedan version were introduced. At that moment, he was captivated by the car's Scandinavian design logic and top-notch engineering, and everything that followed stemmed from that first encounter. Later on, through his work at the editorial team of the Serbian automotive magazines "Autostart" and later "AutoBild," he had the opportunity to engage more closely with Saab vehicles. In 2008, he tested the latest Saab cars of that time, such as the Saab 9-3 TTiD Aero and Saab 9-3 Turbo X. In 2010, as the sole blogger from the region, he participated in the Saab 9-5ng presentation in Trollhättan, Sweden. Alongside journalists from around the world, he got a firsthand experience of the pinnacle of technological offerings from Saab at that time. Currently, Goran owns two Saabs: a 2008 Saab 9-3 Vector Sportcombi with a manual transmission, and a Saab 9-3 Aero Griffin Sport Sedan from the last generation, which rolled off the production line in Trollhättan in December 2011.

Leave a Reply