67 barracuda notchback restoration
The original 340 carried 34 passengers, and had no seat row 13 the placards went from row 12 to row 14. I guess superstition about a row 13 lol. Whats a shame is SAAB developed the SAAB 2000 a 45 passenger stretched version of this aircraft with 6 sickle shaped bladed props, and more powerful engines.
One 2000 built for crossair was flown over for testing by our airline it had takeoff and climb out rates similar to the new embraer regional jets, it also had cruise speeds faster than the 340 but slower than the regional jet, great fuel economy, and active noise control in the cabin to drown out the noise of the engines and porpellers.
I think SAAB was betting on a lot of airlines buying these. I think crossair ended up being their only customer buying i believe 27 of them. People here wanted real jets, and equated having propellers to old airplanes nevermind that these prop planes were actually modern, state of the art. You cant tell the flying public that. They put so much into the development into the 2000 series, but didnt sell enough of them to recoup what they spent, i think that ended their airliner aspirations.
Anders does SAAB still make the JAS Gripen fighter jet ?