Pilot Replicas 1/48 SAAB SK60 A/B RM9
Manufacturer: Pilot Replicas Product Code: 48A005
1/48 SAAB SK60 A/B RM9
Specifications
Scale: 1/48
Top quality plastic kit with surface details 2nd to none. Photo etched detail parts included and decals for 4 aircrafts printed by Cartograf.
In the late 1950s, SAAB began designing a smaller jet-powered aircraft where it would be possible to find customers on both the civilian side as a business jet and on the military side as a training and strike aircraft. A complet e design study called SAAB 105 was shown at the aircraft fair in le Bourget in Paris in early 1961. The concept received much international attention, among others the Swedish Air Force, which will order a prototype in the same year and the first flight took place on June 29, 1963. Until 1965, the Swedish Air Force will order a total of 150 SAAB 105s, which in Sweden will be called SK60. In Sweden, SK60 A would serve as a trainer and B version as a strike aircraft.
SK60 was deployed in 1967, and the aircraft type will prove to be a very successful and reliable design and are still in service in the Swedish Air Force today in 2022.
SK60 will over the years undergo a number of updates with everything from updating avionics, weapons, camera equipment and engine replacements. The SAAB 105 will be equipped with a few different engine types, and for the Swedish Air Force and its SK60, the engine choice fell on a French design, the Turbomeca Aubisque RM 9B. These engines were later replaced in the 90's to a much stronger Williams-Rolls FJ44 engine called RM 15. This modification meant that, among other things the structure around the aircraft engines needed to be modified.
40 SAAB 105 will be bought from the Austrian Air Force. The Austrian version is named SAAB 105 Ö and they where delivered in 1970 to 1972. The major difference from the Swedish SK60 is that the version is equipped with the more powerful GE J85 engines.
This plastic model contains parts and markings for the type SK60 A and B equipped with RM 9B engines.