Saab 21

The Saab 21 was a Swedish single-seat, low-wing fighter and attack aircraft with an unusual twin-boom fuselage and a pusher engine. Saab began the work after the Swedish Air Force decided on a major expansion in preparation for the possibility of being drawn into the Second World War. A single Daimler-Benz DB 605B engine sits at the rear of the central nacelle and drives a pusher propeller, which lets the guns be grouped in the nose and gives the pilot a clear view, and an ejection seat was adopted so the pilot could leave the aircraft without hitting the propeller. It made its maiden flight on 30 July 1943 and the first J 21A-1 aircraft entered service on 1 December 1945, followed by the A-2 and A-3 versions. It was replaced in the mid-1950s by the de Havilland Vampire and the Saab 29 Tunnan, and a jet conversion became the Saab 21R.