simon275
02-18-2008, 07:48 PM
I was surfing around the net last night after I had watched a good documentary on planes on national geographical. I came across this jet the JAS 39 Gripen.
What is cool about it is apart from being a fighter jet. Is that it was designed by the Swedish so that it could land on a straight piece of road and then be rearmed and refueled by 4 conscripts and 1 technician.
For some reason that makes so much sense for me and makes me question why this hasn't been done before. Like I guess you could do it with Harriers but they are only subsonic aircraft. It is great from a defensive point of view as say your air base get blown up a country road becomes your airbase.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Swedish_JAS-39_Gripen_landing.jpg/300px-Swedish_JAS-39_Gripen_landing.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Swedish_JAS-39_Gripen_landing.jpg)
Click the image for a enlarged view. (56k beware)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAS_39_Gripen
What is cool about it is apart from being a fighter jet. Is that it was designed by the Swedish so that it could land on a straight piece of road and then be rearmed and refueled by 4 conscripts and 1 technician.
For some reason that makes so much sense for me and makes me question why this hasn't been done before. Like I guess you could do it with Harriers but they are only subsonic aircraft. It is great from a defensive point of view as say your air base get blown up a country road becomes your airbase.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Swedish_JAS-39_Gripen_landing.jpg/300px-Swedish_JAS-39_Gripen_landing.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Swedish_JAS-39_Gripen_landing.jpg)
Click the image for a enlarged view. (56k beware)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAS_39_Gripen