The Saab 35 Draken is a Swedish fighter-interceptor developed and manufactured by Svenska Aeroplan Aktebolaget (SAAB) between 1955 and 1974. Development of the Saab 35 Draken started in 1948 as the Swedish air force future replacement for the then also in development Saab 29 Tunnan day fighter and Saab 32B Lansen night fighter. It featured an innovative but unproven double delta wing, which led to the creation of a sub-scale test aircraft, the Saab 210, which was produced and flown to test this previously unexplored aerodynamic feature. The full-scale production version entered service with frontline squadrons of the Swedish Air Force on 8 March 1960. It received the designation Flygplan 35 and was produced in several variants and types, most commonly as a fighter type with the prefix J (J 35), standing for Jaktlygplan (Pursuit-aircrat), the Swedish term for fighter aircraft.
The Saab 35 Draken is known for, among other things, its many "firsts" within aviation. It was the first Western European-built combat aircrat with true supersonic capability to enter service and the first fully supersonic aircrat to be deployed in Western Europe. Designwise it was one of, if not the first, combat aircrat designed with double delta wings, being drawn up by early 1950. The unconventonal wing design also had the side effect of making it the first known aircrat to be capable of and perform the Cobra maneuver. It was also one of the first Western-European-built aircrat to exceed Mach 2 in level flight, reaching it on 14 January 1960.