Saab is most famous for its cars here in America, but the company actually started out making airplanes for the Swedish Air Force. Its best was the J35 Draken.
Date: 12 May 2021 Â Â |Â Â Author: Simon Harris
Saab s executive car might have been trying to compete using old Opel underpinnings, but it delivered at least one world first in 1997.
Saab s car business owes much to the company s development of aircraft, but before its demise in 2011, it seemed to suffer from chronic mismanagement.
The company began as Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (Saab) in 1937, providing aircraft for the Swedish air force, but after the war it turned its attention to road vehicles.
Its cars were said to be influenced by aircraft aerodynamics to improve fuel efficiency and many were design classics.
When a 20-year merger with Scania-Vabis came to an end in 1989, US car giant General Motors (GM) took a 50% stake in and management of Saab Automobile.