66 Dart GT HT Whatsitgonnabe?

360DartGT66 said

I'm not that into aviation myself, but from what I understand the 340 was a very successful machine that both pilots and service crew liked. The 2000 that came after was discontinued pretty soon because the sales didn't take off. Can't remember what the objections were, maybe it wasn't as efficient?

The Gripen is very impressive in that it was developed in such a small country as Sweden. And as far as I know it was the first sub-sonic instable fighter.

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The company i work for doing aviation maintenance mechanic work. Specifically aircraft structures and sheetmetal was the largest buyer of the 340A, 340B, and 340B+ variants. They were looking at the 2000 series as a replacement. It had the same short takeoff, climb rate, good fuel economy, and similar cruise speed as a regional jet. Probably thanks to its sycle shaped 6 bladed Dowty propellers. We even had borrowed one fron crossair to test out.

In the end the company went with the Embraer 145 regional jet. I think it was the public perception that prop planes are old, and jets are new. Even though the SAAB 340 used a GE CT-7 turbine engine to drive a gearbox and propeller. SAAB put a lot of money in the 2000 program. I think only 25 of them were sold. The 145 is a nice aircraft, but from a sheetmetal structures repair standpoint its harder to get into places in the fuselage to repair.

We are due to get Embraer 175s soon, and have a bunch of 340s parked that are no longer used. I have fond memories of the 340s as they were the first aircraft i worked on for a living 20 years ago.