SAAB 29 TUNNANS IN KONGO 1993 July 03 Urban Fredriksson urf@icl.se Kongo became independent in 1960, the province Katanga attempted to break loose, whereupon the United Nations sent troops which stayed there for four years. The Katangan air force consisted of one Fouga Magister and some 10 light aircraft, but as this meant total air supremacy, the situation for transport aircraft and troops on the ground wasn't very comfortable. So in September 1961 the UN asked Sweden, Ethiopia and India for units of combat aircraft. On Sept 30:th, five J 29B was dispatched from Sweden. This was an early version, but it was sent instead of the afterburner-equipped J 29F, as range was slightly better and maintenance requirements lower. The Swedish unit was bossed by colonel Sven Lampell (*), and got the Swedish air force wing designation F 22. When arriving at Leopoldville on Oct 4:th, the unit commander was asked when the unit could be sent on its first mission, and replied "It will take 10 min to refuel the aircraft". (The guns were already loaded.) On Oct 8:th they regrouped to Luluabourg, and in a typically Swedish way based the aircraft in dispersed sites. As it was a hot and high site, with only a 1950 m runway, it was impossible to take off with a full fuel load. The external tanks could take 450 litres each, but with 4 * 170 rounds for the 20 mm guns and 8 * 15 cm rockets, only 200 litres per tank could be taken on, together with the 2100 litres internally giving a take off weight of 7500 kg. (Max take off weight on this version was 8170 kg.) The Ethiopians didn't want to base their F-86:s there, as they thought the runway too short. They were give three main tasks: - Air combat - Airfield attack - Close air support As the UN had decided that Katanga was forbidden to fly their aircraft, the first missions were mainly preventive patrols. Take off orders actually could come from transport aircraft flying along the border -- a _very_ primitive AWACS indeed. As Katanga started an offensive in December, it was decided to destroy their air force, which was done in a few days by the J 29:s together with Indian Canberras. The unit was then moved to Kamina to shorten flying times and they continued with support of the very pressed UN group troops and make it possible to operate transport aircraft from the surrounded airfield in Elizabeth- ville. The fighting stopped with success for the UN on Dec 16:th. Availability figures for this time: Oct Nov Dec J 29 100 97.5 82.6 Canberra 98 78 82.7 F-86 72.3 75 88.8 Not badly done for the Saab 29 as is was not even designed for that environment. Partly it was also due to the training and attitude the technicians and mechanics had gotten in Sweden, which centered on aircraft available as much time as possible and making field repairs. Of the two aircraft hit Dec 6:th, the one that got three holes from one bullet through parts of the engine took four days to return to service, as that was the time it took to find welding apparatus for the critical hole, the others were left for later. The other took one hit in an external tank and one in a wing. The latter broke up inside the wing and made a large hole in the rear spar, removed a piece of skin and damaged internal mechanisms. The hole in the wing was patched with material from a DC-4, the wire to the slat was replaced by one from the handbrake of a Volkswagen, the spar was left as was, and a sign put next to the G-meter: "Max 3G" until it could be repaired with parts from Sweden. It partook in a combat mission on Dec 7:th. In March 1962, one J 29B was totalled by visiting Swedish general, nobody hurt. During 1962 the need for reconnaissance capability resulted in two S 29C beeing air transported to Leopoldville where they became operational on Nov 10:th. As they didn't have extensive navigational equipment, they always had to operate togheter with a J 29B. The situation in Kongo worsened, with Katanga rearming. It was considered to send J 29F:s as their better take off performance would enable more air fields to be used and they would also have a performace advantage if it came to air combat. As it were, four J 29B:s were dispatched and arrived in Dec 7-16:th. And a good thing it was too, as the Ethiopians left for home, and the Indians only had one Canberra operational (and it didn't partake in the fighting). Other reinforcments were supposed to be Italian, Iranian and Phillipine, but they all arrived after the fighting was over. On Dec 24:th Katanga attacked the UN, on Dec 29:th and 30:th the Katangan air force was wiped out on the ground at Kolwezi and Jadotville. The final UN counter offencive was launched on Jan 21:st 1963 with the J 29 Flying Barrels as air cover. In Jan one aircraft crashed, and one in March. In April four aircraft, including both S 29C:s, returned to Sweden, and when the UN air operation was terminated in August, the remaining five were scrapped in place. Some basic Saab 29 Tunnan (Barrel) data: Version A/J 29B Span 11 m Length 10.23 m Height 3.75 m Weights Empty 4640 kg Normal 7520 kg Max TO 8170 kg Fuel Fuselage 1400 l Wing 750 l External 900 l Engine RR Ghost 2270 kp Max speed 1035 km/h Max alt. 13700 m Time to 10 km 8.5 min (*) If you visit our air force museum in Linko"ping, you actually can touch his helmet as well as one of the J 29B:s from Kongo, but please DON'T as then more things will probably be roped off. Stupid people couldn't lay off touching the fabric on some of the really old aircraft, so now there's a clear plastic screen protecing some wing tips. The Venom and Vampire for example aren't roped off at all, and you're allowed as close to them as you want, but not touch them.