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First Gripen hunt of the Brazilian Air ForceFAB) took off at 2:04 p.m. this Thursday for its maiden flight in Brazilian airspace. The plane will make the transfer from Navegantes (SC), where it arrived last Sunday after almost 21 days on a ship from Sweden, to Gavião Peixoto (SP).
The city of São Paulo houses the military products unit of Embraer, the Brazilian manufacturer that is a partner of the construction company Gripen, the Swedish Saab.
The flight would cover the 560 km between the two airports, but the time was not estimated because it would depend on the route and weather conditions. The Gripen was not expected to reach its top speed of 2,400 km / h, especially since it is a test aircraft.
The aircraft was flown by Saab’s chief of flight test, Marcus Wandt. He had already made the maiden flight of the aircraft, on August 26 of last year. “It will be great to feel the flow of Brazilian air on the wings,” said the pilot in a video released by the Swedish company.
Last Wednesday, the plane had just replaced parts and was tested on the Navegantes runway. The engine started and started. “Everything went according to plan,” Wandt said.
The FAB4100 Gripen registration is the first of 36 that Brazil bought in 2014, confirming a 2013 decision that ended more than a decade of negotiations.
The terminals will cost SEK 39.3 billion (R $ 24 billion today), financed for 25 years. The first models should be delivered to operate in 2021, and the last of this contract, in 2026.
Of these, about 15 are expected to assemble in Brazil. The country ordered 8 models with two seats, called Gripen F. The type E, like the one that flew this afternoon, has a seat.
This aircraft did not exist when the contract was signed, which opens the possibility for Brazilian engineers from Embraer and other companies associated with the project to learn how to design and build the aircraft together with the Swedes.
More than 230 Brazilians have already been trained at Linköping (pronounced lynchhoping), Saab’s headquarters.
The FAB4100 was symbolically delivered to Brazil on September 10, 2019 in Sweden. It continued its testing campaign without incident, and will now spend another year being evaluated in Brazil.
Today, the country’s air defense is reduced to 46 old American F-5 fighters, from the 1970s, some of them modernized at Embraer with new electronic systems. Gripen will replace them and other models, such as the AMX ground attack aircraft.
