To get experience of jet propulsion, four SAAB J 21 fighter aircraft, was converted to ”rea”. The Daimler-Benz engine with pushing propeller was replaced by a de Havilland Goblin II (RM 1) jet engine of 1.360 kp. This engine, in its later version Goblin III, was also to be license-built in Sweden for the new J 28 Vampire fighter. A lot of other modifications of the original propeller aircraft design had of course to be done.

Further sixty J 21R (R=Rea) were delivered to the Air Force. The last thirty aircraft got the more powerful Goblin III engine (RM 1A) of 1.500 kp. The first J 21Rs were based at the Fighter Wing F 10 at Ängelholm in 1949, but after a year they were transferred to F 7 at Såtenäs as ground attack aircraft, a role that suited the aircraft better. They were re-designated A 21R (A = Attack).  

No A 21R was saved for the posterity, but one preserved J 21A-3 is rebuilt to a genuine J 21R/ A 21R by members of Östergötlands Flyghistoriska Sällskap (ÖFS). It is now exhibited at Flygvapenmuseum, carrying the Sw AF/n 21463. See the colour photos.
 

© Lars Henriksson