Saab 35 Draken

Updated: October 2026 – Anyone who grew up with military aviation in Austria still has it in their ears: the Saab 35 Draken, which flew its circuits over Styria until 2005. From above it looks like an arrowhead with a step, from the side it lacks a horizontal stabilizer, and yet it was faster than twice the speed of sound. Today you rarely experience the Draken in the air, but surprisingly often in museums – especially in Austria, too. This page shows you how to recognize it, which versions there were, how its time with the Austrian armed forces went and where to find preserved examples.

What is the Saab 35 Draken?

The Draken is a single-engine supersonic interceptor from the Swedish manufacturer Saab. In the early 1950s the Swedish Air Force was looking for a successor to the Saab 29 Tunnan and Saab 32 Lansen fighters. The requirement was an aircraft that could quickly intercept approaching bombers, take off in a short distance and reach Mach 2. For a neutral country with a long coastline and large, sparsely populated areas, that was an ambitious goal.

The engineers in Linköping chose a shape that was unusual at the time: the double-delta wing. The first fully fledged prototype flew on October 25, 1955, still without an afterburner. In January 1960 a prototype of the B version reached Mach 2 in a test flight. Around the same time, deliveries of the first production version, the J 35A, to the squadrons began, and in 1960 the Swedish Air Force declared the type operational.

The Draken was built until 1974. Depending on the source and how you count – with or without prototypes and conversions – reference works give roughly 600 to 651 aircraft. It was powered by a single RM6 jet engine, a Swedish license version of the Rolls-Royce Avon built by Svenska Flygmotor.

Why a double delta?

A classic delta wing is strong at high speeds but sluggish at low ones. Saab therefore divided the wing into two sections: inboard, near the fuselage, it is extremely sharply swept and very deep. There is room there for fuel, landing gear and the air intakes without the fuselage having to become thick. Outboard, the wing is swept less, which improves behavior in slow flight and on landing.

The result was a strikingly flat, compact aircraft with low drag. The Draken does not need a horizontal stabilizer: elevators and ailerons sit as combined control surfaces on the wing trailing edge.

The downside was tricky behavior at a high angle of attack. The Draken could enter a so-called super stall, in which the nose rises steeply and the aircraft is barely controllable. Swedish pilots learned to initiate this state deliberately and to recover from it, and used it as an evasive maneuver called “kort parad.” A similar maneuver later became world-famous as the “Cobra,” after Soviet test pilot Viktor Pugachev showed it publicly in the Su-27 in 1989.

The main versions

The basic shape stayed the same across all series. In museums, the version designations still help you place an aircraft’s history. The Swedish Air Force gave each version a nickname from the Swedish spelling alphabet.

J 35A “Adam” and J 35B “Bertil”: The first fighter versions of the Swedish Air Force. The B brought, among other things, an improved fire control system.

Sk 35C “Cesar”: The two-seat trainer, recognizable by the long canopy with two seats in tandem.

J 35D “David”: Fighter with a more powerful engine. The Austrian Drakens later came from this version.

S 35E “Erik”: The reconnaissance version. Instead of radar it carries cameras in the nose, which you recognize by the photo windows in the front fuselage.

J 35F “Filip”: The most-built Swedish fighter version with improved radar and guided missiles.

J 35J “Johan”: A mid-life upgrade of the J 35F, carried out in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was the last Draken version in Swedish service.

Export: Denmark was the only customer to buy a true fighter-bomber version, internally called the Saab 35XD, with the variants F-35, RF-35 (reconnaissance) and TF-35 (two-seater). Finland flew several versions with its own designations such as 35BS, 35FS and 35CS. Austria received converted J 35Ds as the J 35Ö.

Version	Role	Typical feature
J 35A / B	Early fighters (Sweden)	First production aircraft of the 1960s
Sk 35C	Two-seater	Long tandem canopy
J 35D	Fighter	Basis of the Austrian J 35Ö
S 35E	Reconnaissance	Camera windows in the nose
J 35F / J	Fighter, last Swedish version	Later fighters with improved radar
F-35 / RF-35 / TF-35	Fighter-bomber, reconnaissance, trainer (Denmark)	Danish national markings, version 35XD
J 35Ö	Interceptor (Austria)	Red-white-red national marking, short serials like “04”

How to recognize the Draken

The Draken is one of those aircraft you never forget after a single conscious look. Three features are enough.

For the version, look at the canopy and nose: a long tandem canopy points to the Sk 35C or TF-35, camera windows in the nose to a reconnaissance aircraft. National markings and serial give the final confirmation. Swedish Drakens mostly carry five-digit numbers beginning with the type number 35, Austrian aircraft short two-digit serials.

Draken, Viggen or MiG-21?

In museums the delta jets of the Cold War often stand side by side. The finder helps you separate the most common candidates.

Other delta jets like the Dassault Mirage 2000 have a smooth delta without a kink and half-round intakes well behind the cockpit. The modern Saab JAS 39 Gripen carries canards like the Viggen. You will find more comparison aids in the guide Identifying fighter jets in Europe.

The Draken in Austria

For German-speaking spotters the Austrian chapter is the most exciting. For a long time the armed forces had only light jet aircraft like the Saab 105 for airspace surveillance. In 1985 the decision was made to buy 24 used J 35Ds from Sweden and convert them for Austria. The procurement was controversial domestically; in Styria in particular, where the jets were to be based, there was resistance to aircraft noise. Part of these debates repeated itself years later with the Eurofighter.

In 1988 the armed forces took over the aircraft as the J 35Ö. The jets flew with the squadrons of Fliegerregiment 2 (Air Regiment 2) and were at home at the Styrian air bases Zeltweg and Graz-Thalerhof. A few more airframes served as spare parts donors.

One peculiarity was the armament. The State Treaty of 1955 was long interpreted as meaning that Austria could not own guided missiles. The Drakens therefore initially flew with onboard cannons only. Not until the 1990s did they receive Sidewinder guided missiles. In 1992 a modernization followed with a radar warning receiver and countermeasures against radar and infrared guided missiles; this configuration is often called the “J 35Ö Mk 2.”

It got serious in 1991. During the wars in the disintegrating Yugoslavia, Yugoslav military jets, including MiG-21s, repeatedly violated Austrian airspace on the southern border. For many Austrians that was the moment the point of having their own airspace surveillance became tangible – and politically the impetus to finally give the Drakens guided missiles.

In 2005, almost exactly 50 years after the type’s first flight, the Draken era with the Austrian armed forces ended. As a stopgap Austria leased Northrop F-5 jets from Switzerland, and from 2007 the Eurofighter Typhoon took over airspace surveillance.

Year	Event
1985	Decision to buy 24 used J 35Ds
1988	Aircraft taken over as the J 35Ö
1991	Airspace violations during the Yugoslav wars
1990s	Retrofit with Sidewinder and self-protection systems
2005	Retirement, transition to F-5 and Eurofighter

Sweden, Denmark and Finland

In Sweden the Draken was the backbone of the fighter units for about four decades before the Saab 37 Viggen and finally the Gripen replaced it. The last J 35Js were retired in December 1999.

Denmark operated 51 Drakens with two squadrons, mainly as fighter-bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Service there ended as early as 1993. Several former Danish aircraft then went to the US, where the National Test Pilot School used six of them until 2009 to train test pilots.

Finland flew about 50 Drakens with two fighter squadrons and retired the last ones in 2000. With that, the type’s military service ended everywhere – with Austria as the last user until 2005.

Where to see the Draken today

In Austria

In Austria a striking number of Drakens have been preserved. These addresses are especially interesting for you:

• Zeltweg: At Fliegerhorst Hinterstoisser (Hinterstoisser air base), the military aviation exhibition shows several former Draken aircraft of the armed forces. A visit around the AIRPOWER in Zeltweg is especially rewarding, when the grounds are open to visitors.
• Vienna: A retired Draken stands in the outdoor grounds of the Museum of Military History.
• Graz: The Austrian Aviation Museum at Graz Airport also shows a Draken.
• Hörsching: At the entrance to Fliegerhorst Vogler (Vogler air base) near Linz Airport stands a Draken as a display piece.
• Tulln: A Draken with the serial “17” adorns a roundabout – an unusual but rewarding photo subject.

In Germany

Three institutions in Germany have a Draken in their collections. The Technik Museum Speyer has shown a former Austrian aircraft with the serial “04” since 2008. Further examples stand in the Flugausstellung Hermeskeil (Hermeskeil flight exhibition) and in the Flugwerft Schleißheim (Schleissheim aircraft hangar museum).

Elsewhere in Europe

Sweden naturally has the largest selection. At the Flygvapenmuseum near Linköping (Swedish Air Force Museum) at Malmen air base, you can follow the line of development from the Tunnan through the Draken and Viggen to the Gripen in one place; visiting tips are on the spot page Flygvapenmuseum at Malmen airfield. In Denmark and Finland, too, numerous Drakens stand in museums and as monuments at air bases.

You will also find Drakens in the Prague-Kbely Aviation Museum, the Polish Aviation Museum in Krakow, the Royal Army Museum in Brussels and the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace in Le Bourget. Another former Austrian example stands in Toulouse.

In the air

Experiencing a flying Draken is a real rarity. The Swedish Air Force Historic Flight keeps a single-seat J 35J and a two-seat Sk 35C airworthy and shows them at selected events. In the US a former Swedish J 35F is civil-registered. In Denmark the Draken Team Karup keeps former Danish aircraft that can taxi but do not fly.

Whether a Draken appears in a given season is never guaranteed. So keep an eye on the programs of the major events – the article Airshows in Europe for plane spotters gives an overview.

Photo tips for museum Drakens

The Draken is flat, broad and short – a completely different subject from the slender arrows of its time.

You will find more exotic types for your list in the guide Spotting rare aircraft, and tips on older types in the article Recognizing vintage aircraft in the sky.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The Draken stands for Sweden’s path to an independent aviation industry: a bold double-delta design that reached Mach 2 and stayed in service for four decades. For Austria it was the first true supersonic interceptor and accompanied the armed forces through the turbulent years on the southern border. Today you meet it mainly in museums – in Austria so often that a Draken tour of its own is worthwhile.