Warbird Information Exchange

Marineair and Towpilot,

I've seen photo's of, and heard of the SAAB B17. It is a rather unique looking airframe, especially the landing gear. Tell me, are there any others left other than the flyable example ?

Paul

Sure, for instance there is one at the "Danmarks Tekniske Museum" in Helsingoer, Denmark.

http://www.tekniskmuseum.dk/mod_inc/?p=itemModule&id=245&kind=9

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I like the Saab B-17 too. It kind of reminds me of the Brewster Bermuda and other early war dive bombers with the radial engine, all metal, low wing etc.
I seem to remember that there was an expedition 10 or 15 years ago where the Canadiens flew a C-130 in and picked up a Fairey Firefly MK.1A from a base in an African country, Ethiopia(?) Left outside at the base still in revetments were other WW II era Fireflies and maybe 3 or so Saab B-17's. I think they were in good condition due to the dry terrain and the govt. just didn't have any money to operate them or repair them.
IIRC, the B-17 has a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 and theMk1 Fireflies being of WWII era, had Merlins instead of Griffons.

The fireflyies went to shearwater and the national museum in Ottawa, they do have griffon engines.

There are at least four complete airplanes left. Besides the flying one and the static one in Denmark, both the A model with the same P&W as in P-35A, the Swedish Air Force Museum (who owns the flier) has a B model with the Bristol Mercury engine on a permanent static display. One of the 46 B 17A that were sold to Ethiopia in 1950 is as far as I know in restoration back to flying condition in South Africa. There is also at least one known empty airframe (empty means no engine, no wings, no landing gear, no cockpit!) still left in the desert in the middle of nowhere in Ethiopia. I've seen pix of it.

The Saab B 17 was the first airplane designed by the company. The american influence is obvious. Several american engineers were working for Saab at the time. The company didn't get into cars at all until after WWII!

This year makes the 10th anniversary of the flier (SE-BYH) beeing airworthy again! It still surprise me that no one bother to have it painted correctly! Oh well, I guess we should be glad it still flies at least.

Anyone have pictures or a link to pictures of the flyer?

A quick "Google" search turned up a few links...

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1390951421033883883XSaaSP

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1168119&WxsIERv=Fnno%20O17N&Wm=0&WdsYXMg=Syltincrazhfrhz%20Yvax%F6cvat&QtODMg=Fngranf%20%28RFVO%29&ERDLTkt=Fjrqra&ktODMp=Whar%2018%2C%202006&BP=1&WNEb25u=Xney%20Qentr&xsIERvdWdsY=FR-OLU&MgTUQtODMgKE=Gnklvat%20bhg%20gb%20cresbez%20ng%20gur%20Syltincarg%2080gu%20Naavirefnel%20nve%20fubj%20ng%20Fngranf%20ba%20n%20tybevbhf%20Whar%20qnl.&YXMgTUQtODMgKERD=1364&NEb25uZWxs=2007-01-28%2021%3A13%3A00&ODJ9dvCE=&O89Dcjdg=17239&static=yes&width=1024&height=695&sok=JURER%20%20%28pa%20%3D%20%2717239%27%29%20%20BEQRE%20OL%20cubgb_vq%20QRFP&photo_nr=1&prev_id=&next_id=1167924

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=1097792&WxsIERv=Fnno%20O17N&Wm=0&WdsYXMg=Hagvgyrq&QtODMg=Qnyn-Wnean%20%28RFXQ%29&ERDLTkt=Fjrqra&ktODMp=Nhthfg%2013%2C%202006&BP=1&WNEb25u=Qnavry%20Avyffba&xsIERvdWdsY=FR-OLU&MgTUQtODMgKE=Wcrtf%20fubhyq%20unir%20rzorqqrq%20fbhaq.....%20%28Syltsrfgra%202006%29&YXMgTUQtODMgKERD=2633&NEb25uZWxs=2006-08-20%2020%3A42%3A40&ODJ9dvCE=&O89Dcjdg=17239&static=yes&width=1600&height=1153&sok=JURER%20%20%28pa%20%3D%20%2717239%27%29%20%20BEQRE%20OL%20cubgb_vq%20QRFP&photo_nr=3&prev_id=1167924&next_id=1094907

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0921979&WxsIERv=Fnno%20O17N&Wm=0&WdsYXMg=Hagvgyrq&QtODMg=Qhksbeq%20%28RTFH%29&ERDLTkt=HX%20-%20Ratynaq&ktODMp=Whyl%209%2C%202005&BP=1&WNEb25u=Naqref%20Cerfgrehq&xsIERvdWdsY=FR-OLU&MgTUQtODMgKE=&YXMgTUQtODMgKERD=1432&NEb25uZWxs=2005-09-14%2021%3A27%3A47&ODJ9dvCE=W&O89Dcjdg=17239&static=yes&width=1500&height=1012&sok=JURER%20%20%28nvepensg%20%3D%20%27Fnno%20O17N%27%29%20%20BEQRE%20OL%20cubgb_vq%20QRFP&photo_nr=3&prev_id=1097792&next_id=NEXTID

It looks pretty good with the gear retracted in flight. Surely there are more of them in Ethiopia, If they had 46 and now there are only 3 1/2
maybe there are a few more at some of the other bases in country, left abandoned. If they didn't have money for fuel and maintenance they probably used up all the spares more quickly than aircraft were "written off" in accidents. Just a guess.

If you search on registration SE-BYH att airliners.net at least 38 pictures pops up, some or them really nice! A short general history lesson about the Saab B 17 in english with a couple of pictures can be found at http://www.avrosys.nu/aircraft/Bomb/157B17.htm.

The support club around the flier has a web at http://www.b17.se/. It's all in Swedish, but if you click on "Fotogalleri" to the left and then continue clicking you find several nice pictures.

BTW, the military designation system in the SwAF never use a dash, but always a space between the first letter and number. I.e. both B-17 and B17 are slight but still misspellings. This can sometimes be good to know when you do a search on any Swedish military airplane!