Saab in Brazil delivers the first pair of air brakes for Gripen
Saab's aerospace plant in Brazil has completed production of the first pair of air brakes for Gripen E. The parts will be shipped to Linköping, Sweden, in early April, as per the company's production schedule.
“This is a major milestone, which also represents a warm-up for the start of production of more complex work packages, such as the rear fuselage. This delivery proves that our process is mature and shows to the Brazilian Government and the Brazilian Air Force that we are ready for the next step,” said Alexandre Barbosa, Engineering Manager at the Saab factory in Brazil.
Consisting of several aluminium and carbon fibre parts, the production of the air brakes started in October 2020. In total, 72 pairs will be produced, of which 36 will be used in the Gripen E/F acquired by the Brazilian Air Force.
It is no coincidence that the first two work packages were the air brakes and the tail cone, delivered in December 2020, since these are less complex parts compared to the next work packages that Saab will manufacture in Brazil, allowing the consolidation of the production process as a whole.
“Consolidating the process at the very beginning saves us time in implementing the production of the other work packages, such as the forward and rear fuselage as well as the wing box, because we will have already implemented less complex operations”, explained Ola Rosén, Chief Operational Officer for the Saab factory in Brazil.
As the only Gripen aerostructures factory located outside of Sweden, the entire process is closely monitored by Saab in Linköping in order to give support to the local professionals. At the same time, the risk analysis run by Brazilian engineers contribute for improvements and new ways of working not only in the Brazilian facility but also on the Swedish one.