Svenska Aero Jaktfalken

Svenska Aero Jaktfalken ("The Gyrfalcon") was a Swedish biplane fighter aircraft, constructed in the late 1920s.

Jaktfalken was constructed and manufactured by Svenska Aero as a private venture, internally designated the SA-11 for the initial variant.

The company contacted the Swedish Aerial board, requesting guidelines and wishes for a fighter aircraft.

Jaktfalken was a conventional biplane equipped with an Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar 500 hp 14-cylinder radial engine.

[1] The Swedish Air administration decided that three Jaktfalken and three British Bristol Bulldog II fighters were to be ordered for comparative tests.

The prototype was bought by the Swedish Air Force on January 9, 1930 for 81,654 Norwegian krone, and given the designation J 5.

The order was followed by a new one for 5 aircraft with Jupiter VII engines in 1930, designated SA-14 Jaktfalken II (or J 6A in the Swedish Air Force).

When the Swedish Air Force wanted an additional seven aircraft in 1933, Svenska Aero had been bought by ASJA and the deliveries come from the new manufacturer, who made some minor modifications to the stabilizer and the windshield.

The designer, Carl Clemens Bücker, was forced to reconstruct the aircraft from the firewall forward to make room for the new engine.

This test pilot was Einar Lundborg, a national hero, who had rescued the Arctic explorer Umberto Nobile.

Bücker later modified the aircraft's fuselage and gave it a new landing gear and Jupiter VIIF engine.

The aircraft were designated the two-letter code JF (for Jakt-Falken, numbers JF-219, JF-224 and JF-228, the latter two being J 6Bs) and were used for training at the airfield at Kauhava until 1945, when all were scrapped.

SA-11 Jaktfalken, 1 februari 1930.
SA-11 Jaktfalken in the Swedish Air Force as J 5 .
JF-224 (J 6B) in Finnish service, 22 July 1943.
JF-224 (J 6B) in Finnish service, 22 July 1943.