FFVS 22

The FFVS J 22 was a single-engine fighter of the Swedish 1942.

At the beginning of the Second World War, the Swedish Air Force ( Flygvapnet ) wanted to replace their obsolete Gloster Gladiator biplane through a more modern fighters. Sweden ordered then in the U.S. 120 Seversky P-35 and 144 Vultee P -66 Vanguard hunters. However occurred on 18 June 1940, an arms embargo by the U.S., which also affected Sweden.

The Swedish Air Force looked for alternatives, but the Finnish VL Myrsky and the Soviet Polikarpov I-16 had to poor performance. A purchase Mitsubishi A6M Zero Japanese was impossible. A purchase of Fiat CR.42 Falco possible and Reggiane Re.2000 Falco was only a short term solution. The Saab was busy at this time with the construction of the Saab 17 and Saab 18.

So a new company for the planned Hunter was founded, the Kungliga Flygförvaltningens Flygverkstad i Stockholm ( FFVS ) led by Bo Lundberg. The J 22 was designed as a low-wing monoplane with a licensed Pratt & Whitney R -1830 Twin Wasp engine.

The first flight took place on September 20, 1942 at Bromma airport. The commissioning was followed in October 1943. Altogether 198 machines were produced until April 1946. The machines had good flight characteristics and performance, but the view of the ground during the landing was a bit difficult, and remained until 1952 in the service of the Swedish Air Force.

Three variants were produced:

• J 22A - first production version, 2x 7,9 mm and 2 x 13.2 mm machine guns (143 machines)
• J 22B - with 4x 13.2mm machine guns (55 machines)
• S 22 - rebuilt nine J 22A as a combat aircraft (1947 )

Specifications

Source

• Donald, D, Lake J. (eds. ) ( 1996) Encyclopedia of world military aircraft. Airtime Publishing. ISBN 1-880588-24-2

• Military Aircraft
• Military (Sweden)