Saab 100 Airliner - Completed

[Dizzyfugu]

Odd, but very retro. 

[martinbayer]

Shades of Baade 152 there...

[nönöbär]

The Plane

In the early to mid-1950s, the first jet-powered passenger planes made their debut. Among the pioneers were the De Havilland DH.106 Comet, the Sud Aviation Caravelle, and the Tupolev Tu-104 - each considered, to varying degrees, a success in ushering in the jet age for commercial aviation.

But there were others - aircraft that have since faded into obscurity. One such example is the Saab S-100. The Swedish manufacturer Saab, known for its piston-engined Saab 90, sought to expand its capabilities by designing a jet aircraft suitable for operation at smaller, less developed Scandinavian airports.

Swedish engineer Leif Birgerson led the effort and pursued a collaboration with Sud Aviation, as Saab lacked the capacity to independently develop the entire airframe. The resulting design, the S-100, was based on the fuselage of the Caravelle but featured a high-wing configuration. Given the relatively low thrust of 1950s jet engines, the S-100 was equipped with four powerplants: two Rolls-Royce Avon RA-29 engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage, and two more powerful RA-32 Super Avon engines placed under the wings. This arrangement was intended to provide sufficient thrust for short, unpaved runways.

The S-100's maiden flight took place in April 1957, and it entered service a year later. Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), the only operator, ordered 19 units, of which 7 were actually delivered.

Tragedy struck on May 4, 1958, when the first S-100 crash occurred. Shortly after taking off from Narvik at night, the aircraft plunged into the fjord, killing all on board. With no flight recorders and no eyewitnesses, the cause of the crash was never determined. Though flights were suspended, they resumed six weeks later.

However, on October 15, 1958, a second fatal crash happened shortly after takeoff from Oslo Airport, again leaving no survivors. This prompted Saab to begin intensive testing. It was soon discovered that the aircraft had a critical design flaw: at high angles of attack, airflow to the rear-mounted engines could be disrupted by the aircraft's wings, leading to flameouts. If only one engine lost power in such a scenario, it could result in asymmetric thrust and an unrecoverable stall.

Following these findings, the S-100 was withdrawn from commercial service. SAS returned all delivered aircraft to Saab. All but two were scrapped; the remaining pair were used for further testing. The results of these tests discouraged the future use of high-wing designs with rear-mounted jet engines in commercial airliners.

By early 1962, the final two S-100s were also scrapped. None of these ill-fated aircraft exist today—a forgotten chapter in early jet aviation history.









The model

This 1/144 scale model of the Saab S-100 is a composite build, utilizing leftovers from multiple other kits. The fuselage and aft-mounted engines were taken from a Mistercraft Sud Aviation Caravelle kit, while the wing and tail originated from a Minicraft Lockheed Super Constellation kit. The underwing engine nacelles and main landing gear housings were custom-designed and 3D-printed, while the landing gear itself were taken from an Academy B-52 Stratofortress kit.

Modifications were required to adapt the donor parts to the S-100 configuration. The original wing components were altered to eliminate the mounts designed for radial piston engines, and the fuselage underwent structural rework to enable a high-wing installation.

The landing gear housings were digitally modeled in Tinkercad and printed with a resin printer while the wing-mounted engines were sourced from previously printed components.

The model is pained using Revell Aqua Color. The livery is completed with decals from the Caravelle kit.

More about the Saab S-100: https://www.scratchbaer.de/whatif-aircraft/sweden/saab-s-100/

[PR19_Kit]

SUPERB!

I absolutely love that, a brilliant job.         

[Old Wombat]

SUPERB!

What Kit said.   

[Joe C-P]

The Frankenstein family would be in awe.   

[NARSES2]

Lovely looking aeroplane 

[Wardukw]

Beautiful mate..elegant as hell 😍 😍

[ericr]

    

[kitbasher]

👍

Very 'No Highway', successor to the Rutland Reindeer.

[zenrat]

Good job mate.   

[kerick]

Considering some of the designs from way back when, this is very plausible. Awesome build.

[Weaver]

That looks great! 

High wings would be more likely to cause problems with rear podded engines in normal flight (due to the downwash) than at high angles of attack. The real problem with a high wing and rear podded engines would be FOD. The low wing on most such designs shields the intakes from debris thrown up by the undercarriage. With a high wing layout though, the intakes would be right in the path of anything thrown up by the main gear.

[kerick]

That looks great! 

High wings would be more likely to cause problems with rear podded engines in normal flight (due to the downwash) than at high angles of attack. The real problem with a high wing and rear podded engines would be FOD. The low wing on most such designs shields the intakes from debris thrown up by the undercarriage. With a high wing layout though, the intakes would be right in the path of anything thrown up by the main gear.

And then you get an engine out and possibly a fire on takeoff. A very bad situation.