Maiden flight of Gripen E

On 15 June, the first Gripen E next generation, multi-role fighter made its maiden flight from Saab’s airfield in Linköping, Sweden and flew over eastern parts of Östergötland for 40 minutes, with the aircraft carrying out a number of actions to demonstrate various test criteria including retracting and extending of the landing gear. “Today we have flown this world-class fighter aircraft for the first time. We achieved it with the fully qualified software for the revolutionary avionics system. This is about giving our customers a smart fighter system with the future designed-in from the start. The flight test activities will continue to build on this achievement with the programme on track to achieve the 2019 delivery schedule to our Swedish and Brazilian customers,” stated Jonas Hjelm, Senior Vice President and Head of Saab Business Area Aeronautics.