Most of us have seen the impressive videos of Russian stunt pilots performing the so-called “cobra maneuver,” pitching the nose of their Sukhoi fighters quickly past vertical and then immediately nosing down again. It’s a remarkable thing to see, but what you may not know is that the maneuver was first developed by Swedish pilots in the 1960s flying Saab 35 Draken fighters!
The Draken was a home-grown Swedish jet fighter with a double-delta wing configuration that first entered service in 1960. It was immensely capable (and Western Europe’s first true supersonic production plane), but the unconventional wing design did have its drawbacks. One was that it was prone to deep stalls (also called “super-stalls”) that are very hard to recover from.
The first cobra-maneuver capability was discovered by test pilots Bengt Olow and Ceylon Utterborn during their efforts to create recovery procedures for deep stalls. It became a popular trick with Draken pilots, though its value in actual combat has never been tested. Since then, only a handful of aircraft have proven capable of the cobra.
Given the Cold War’s secrecy, however, Olow and Utterborn’s maneuver was not disclosed to the public for many decades. By that time, Soviet and Syrian pilots had been largely credited with the technique’s development. The full story has only filtered out slowly.
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Requirements Management for MoD
3moThis is great to see Andrew Larkman (Lala)! I remember our time on IFF Mode 5 doing OT&E in Cambridge! Happy times! Looking forward to seeing more posts about the OT&E. Keep them coming!