#1315
SAAB 21
🇸🇪 Sweden ·first flew 1943· fighter and attack aircraft
what is it?
The SAAB 21 is a Swedish single-seat low-wing monoplane fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by SAAB. Its twin boom fuselage with a pusher engine gives the aircraft an unusual appearance. Work began at SAAB following a Swedish Air Force decision to embark on a major expansion programme in preparation for the possibility of being drawn into the Second World War. The company designed a monoplane twin-boom aircraft, powered by a single Daimler-Benz DB 605B engine that was positioned at the rear of the fuselage nacelle, driving a pusher propeller.
How to recognise it: 1 piston engine with propeller · low wing · retractable tricycle gear · 11.6 m wingspan
base stats
Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).
fun facts
- First flew 83 years ago, in 1943.
- Top speed is 5.0× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Wingspan of 11.6 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
- Can fly 1.2× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).
piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.
spec sheet
- first flight
- 1943-07-30
- introduced
- 1945
- retired
- 1951
- status
- retired
- number built
- 298
- role
- fighter and attack aircraft
- origin
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- makers
- Saab Group
- engines
- 1× Daimler-Benz DB 605B / Daimler-Benz DB 605
- crew
- 1
- length
- 10.5 m
- wingspan
- 11.6 m
- height
- 4 m
- max take-off weight
- 5,200 kg
- top speed
- 650 km/h
- cruise speed
- 495 km/h
- range
- 750 km
- ceiling
- 10,200 m
- wings
- low wing
- landing gear
- retractable tricycle gear
Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q326931, Wikipedia: SAAB 21 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.