View source for Saab AB

=== Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget (SAAB) ===
[[File:SAAB logotyp 1939.svg|thumb|SAAB's logotype from 1939, depicting a license built [[Junkers Ju 86]], the first aircraft produced by the company.]]
Saab was founded by [[AB Bofors]] in 1937 as ''Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget'' ([[acronym]] ''SAAB''; {{literally|The Swedish Aeroplane Corporation}}), located in [[Trollhättan]],<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web |work=Saab AB |url=http://www.saabusa.com/saabjsp/about/heritage.jsp |title=History and Background: Timeline, Video |publisher=saabusa.com |date=1 January 1980 |place=US |access-date=11 February 2009 |archive-date=23 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223205615/http://www.saabusa.com/saabjsp/about/heritage.jsp |url-status= dead }}</ref> by reforming the aircraft engine division of engineering company [[NOHAB]] (''Nohab Flygmotorfabrik AB'', {{literally|Nohab Aero engine factory}}), which had been acquired by Bofors in 1935. Bofors had in recent years been in development with the [[Swedish Air Force]] (SAF) to create aircraft weaponry and ordnance and wanted to create an aircraft manufacturing subortinate which could take a monopoly over the SAF's future aircraft orders, a premise supported by the SAF.<ref name="Svfpl Andersson">{{cite book |last1=Andersson |first1=Lennart |title=Svenska flygplan : Den svenska flygindustrins historia : history of the Swedish aviation industry |date=1990 |publisher=Allt om hobby |location=Stockholm |pages=102–121, 156–173 178–235}}</ref> At the time, however, there already was a competing company formed with this premise in 1931, by the name of [[AB Svenska Järnvägsverkstädernas Aeroplanavdelning|ASJA]] (''AB Svenska Järnvägsverkstädernas Aeroplanavdelning'', {{literally|The Swedish Railway workshops Aeroplane department}}), located in [[Linköping]], which was a successor to [[Svenska Aero]] (''SA'') under Sven Blomberg, head designer of the [[Svenska Aero Jaktfalken]] fighter plane. ASJA had solicit Blomberg from Svenska Aero in 1930 and later purchased the company in 1932 along with their portfolio of designs, quickly making them the leading aeroplane manufacturer in Sweden at the time.<ref name="Svfpl Andersson"/>

Bofors started negotiating with ASJA in 1936 to see if they could enter into a sort of stock sharing [[consortium]] lead under a [[parent company]]. Such a deal was struck in 1937, with support from the SAF, the parent company being named ''AB Förenade Flygverkstäder'' (''AFF''). To ease future competition, Bofors bought out small competitor [[Edmund Sparmann|E. Sparmanns aircraft workshop]], which at the time was developing a modern fighter for the SAF, under the name of {{Interlanguage link|Sparmann E4|sv}}.<ref name="Svfpl Andersson"/>

Despite the consortium, SAAB in Trollhättan (previously Nohab Flygmotorfabrik AB) still had to compete with ASJA over contracts and the cooperation never came to fruition. While SAAB in Trollhättan got a few contracts, such as license producing the [[Junkers Ju 86]] bomber for the Swedish Air Force (SAF designation ''B 3'') in 1938, ASJA won most of the contracts from the SAF, such as license production of the Hawker Hart (''B 4'') and [[Northrop Model 8]] (''B 5'').<ref name="Svfpl Andersson"/> After ASJA's design bureau produced the winning designs for what eventually became the [[Saab 17]] (ASJA L-10) and [[Saab 18]] (ASJA L-11), beating out AFF/SAAB's competing F.1 and G.1 designs, it was decided in March 1939 to scrap AFF and formally reform ASJA into the SAAB-[[Concern (business)|concern]], the Trollhättan factory (previously Nohab) becoming ''SAAB/T'' and the Linköping factory (previous ASJA) becoming ''SAAB/L'', the latter becoming [[headquarters]].<ref name="Svfpl Andersson"/>

[[File:SAAB Linköping, L-18B (Saab 18) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[SAAB 18]]B (internal name ''L-18B'') being produced at the Saab Linköping factory at the end of [[World War II]].]]
The basic initial development was the problems for the [[Swedish government]] to get quality [[military aircraft]] delivered at the beginning of the [[World War II|Second World War]]. The final trigger was the inability to get a large number of [[Seversky P-35]] delivered from the United States. From then on the Swedish government focused on establishing domestic production and development of military aircraft which Saab became involved in, a policy that has continued to this day. The first SAAB-developed aircraft was the [[SAAB 17]] light dive bomber (first flight: 1940-05-18), soon followed by the [[SAAB 18]] [[schnellbomber]] (first flight: 1942-06-19) and [[SAAB 21]] single-seat fighter (first flight: 1943-07-30), among other developments, the latter being the first aircraft to see service with a modern style [[ejection seat]], using gunpowder to eject instead of compressed air like the contemporary German counterparts.

[[File:SAAB Logotyp 1943.svg|thumb|SAAB's logotype from around 1943.]]
Originally manufacturing aircraft, the company sought ways in which to diversify its business. Before the Second World War, a majority of cars in Sweden were imported from the United States. The US car manufacturers were producing [[tank]]s during the war, and the US domestic market took all the US car production in the late 1940s. Hence there was a large supply shortage of private cars in Europe and Sweden, and buyers were facing waiting lists for years for new cars. In the late 1940s, Saab began manufacturing cars at its [[Saab Automobile]] division, based in Trollhättan. The first car was the [[Saab 92]]; full-scale production started 12 December 1949, based on the prototype [[Ursaab]].<ref>{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pI_r3ULwTkMC&pg=PA118 |title = The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Automobiles |page = 118 |first = Giles |last = Chapman |publisher = Dorling Kindersley |date = May 2009 |access-date = 3 May 2012 |isbn = 9781405336956 |archive-date = 19 April 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230419082012/https://books.google.com/books?id=pI_r3ULwTkMC&pg=PA118 |url-status = live }}</ref> Around 1950 the style "Saab" started being used instead of the [[all caps]] "SAAB".<ref name="Gunston">{{cite book |last=Gunston |first=Bill |title=World Encyclopedia of Aircraft Manufacturers, 2nd Edition |year=2005 |publisher=Sutton Publishing |location=Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire, [[England|ENG]], UK |isbn=0-7509-3981-8 |page=164 }}</ref>

In the late 1950s Saab ventured into the computer market with [[Datasaab]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/> The company was a result partly of the need to make a computer that would be small enough to mount in an aeroplane as navigational equipment. During the 1960s several computers were developed and sold to European countries, for uses such as banking. The aircraft computer (CK 37) was used in 1971 in the [[Saab Viggen|Viggen]]. The company was sold in 1975 to [[UNIVAC|Sperry UNIVAC]], while Saab retained its flight computer development.