The Saab Tunnan was an unusually shaped jet with surprisingly good performance. The first production version of the J29 which was nicknamed "Flygande Tunnan (Flying Barrel)", was the "J-29A". A total of 224 were built from 1951 to 1954, and entered service with the Swedish Air Force in 1952. The J-29A was powered by the RM2 Ghost with 2,270 kilograms (5,000 pounds) thrust, Trim tabs were added, as well as dive brakes. The dive brakes were mounted on the fuselage ahead of the main landing gear doors. The J-29A was followed by the "J-29B", which was fitted with extra fuel tanks in the wings, increasing its fuel capacity by 50%. It also was fitted with stores pylons for bombs and rockets, allowing it to be used in the attack role. For this reason it was also referred to as the "A-29B".
The initial flight of the J-29B was on 11 March 1953, and 332 were built from 1953 to 1955. The type set a world speed record of 977.35 KPH (607.05 MPH) over a 500 kilometer (310 mile) closed-circuit course in 1954. SAAB engineers continued to refine the wing design to improve the aircraft "critical Mach number", resulting in a new wing with a "dogtooth" leading edge. This wing was used on a new Tunnan variant, the "J-29E/F", with the prototype flying on 3 December 1953. 29 J-29E/Fs were built in 1955. The new wing was also refitted to S-29C reconnaissance aircraft, with no change in designation. The last variant of the Tunnan was the "J-29F", which featured the afterburning Ghost engine that had been evaluated on the single J-29D and the dogtooth wing developed for the J-29E/F. The prototype performed its first flight on 20 March 1954, and demonstrated greatly improved take-off and climb characteristics.
The Mibo J-29 Tunnan Gen 3 faithfully recreates the J-29E/F version at a scale of 4.8:1 which makes for an impressive sized model with a wing span of 2.291 meters and a fuselage length of 2.13 meters.
The Gen 3 kit has been considerably modified compared to Gen 2.
The following have been upgraded:
- Side hatch added for better installation access.
- Wing Internals re-designed for a stronger structure, with a new spar.
- Fuselage scale vents and intake re-worked.
- Wing internal pylon hard points updated to match the ones of the A-10.
A great care was taken to provide a high torsional rigidity to the upper rear section of the fuselage ( fin/ stabilizer area ).
However the all up weight of the model is low, with 14 to 16 kilos depending on your powerplant choice.
The model is designed to use our B100F or B140F turbines and has plenty of room for the installation of your engine and accessories.
The Mibo J-29E/F incorporates a perfect scale outline with an scale competition level of detailing including panel lines, rivets and hatches.
The model is fully composite construction using glass, airex/ glass sandwich and is fully vacuum molded. This allows for an extremely light yet rigid airframe. The kit is highly pre-assembled with formers and fittings installed.
Most fuselage formers are made of a very strong aircraft grade plywood/ carbon sandwich. Below is a view of the main gear formers. The airex laminate is clearly visible on this picture.
Here is a view of the front gear area. The gear formers use the same plywood/ carbon sandwich and the gear comes pre-installed. Note that the nose gear doors come installed as well.
The kit is supplied complete with canopy, hardware, instructions and an English language assembly manual.
The high quality canopy:
The landing gear is available as an option. It is designed and produced in Austria by Der Schweighoffer. It is a very high quality unit, using real ACME screws and high quality motors.
When the gear option is purchased with the model, the gear comes installed with the nose gear doors fitted.
The plane is fully electrically controlled with no pneumatic system required. This enables easy and very fast setup at the field. We recommend using our super high quality A123 M1-B 2S and 3S packs with this kit.
An unusual subject, and a great flying model, the MIBO J-29E/F will provide you with many enjoyable flights whether for serious scale competition. This model was presented at Top Gun 2013 by Mike Selby and delivered some nice flights and a very good static score.
Characteristics:
Span: 2.29m
Length: 2.13m
Dry weight: 14 kgs
The options available are as followed:
- Landing gear
- Cockpit ( in progress )
- Large kevlar fuel cell ( 3.7 l )
- Medium kevlar fuel cell ( 2.7 l )
- Underwing tank with pylons ( pair )
- underwing tanks ( pair )
- Wing pylons ( pair )
- Wing fences ( pair )
- Thrust tube
- A123 M1-B 2500 mAh 2S1P Rx battery
- A123 M1-B 5500 mAh 2S2P Rx battery
- A123 M1-B 5500 mAh 3S2P gear/brakes battery