''Frid'' Benjamin Filippus Wänström (May 8, 1905,

Lidköping Lidköping () is a locality and the seat of Lidköping Municipality in Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had about 40 000 inhabitants in 2021. It is situated on the southern shore of Lake Vänern and sometimes refers to itself as "Lidk� ...

– September 11, 1988,

Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

) was a Swedish aviation engineer who after

KTH Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technol ...

in 1932 was employed by the flygstyrelsen (predecessor to Royal Swedish Air Force Materiel Administration), from 1936 head of the calculation department

Saab AB Saab AB (originally , later just SAAB and Saab Group) is a Swedish aerospace and defence company, founded in 1937. Headquartered in Stockholm, the development and the manufacturing is undertaken in Linköping. Saab produced automobiles from 19 ...

in Linköping. Frid Wänström is mentioned for leading the work with

Saab 29 Tunnan The Saab 29 ''Tunnan'', colloquially ''Flygande tunnan'' or just ''Tunnan'' ( en, "The flying barrel", "The barrel"),. is a Swedish fighter that was designed and manufactured by Saab in the late 1940s. It was the second turbojet-powered comb ...

. It was the first fighter aircraft in Sweden with

Swept wing A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally Forward-swept wing, forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction. Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds w ...

. Information about arrow wings came from Switzerland and should have included drawings on

Messerschmitt Messerschmitt AG () was a German share-ownership limited, aircraft manufacturing corporation named after its chief designer Willy Messerschmitt from mid-July 1938 onwards, and known primarily for its World War II fighter aircraft, in part ...

s Me P1101, P1110, P1111 and P1112. SAAB:s project manager Frid Wänström fetched these secret papers from Switzerland to Sweden in 1945. The documents came from engineers from Messerschmitt who moved to Switzerland at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Frid Wänström also participated in the following Saab projects

Saab 32 Lansen The Saab 32 Lansen (English: Lance) is a two-seat, transonic military aircraft designed and manufactured by Saab AB from 1955 to 1960 for the Swedish Air Force (''Flygvapnet''). Three principal variants of the Lansen were built for attack (A 32A ...

Saab 35 Draken The Saab 35 Draken (; 'The Kite' or 'The Dragon') is a Swedish fighter-interceptor developed and manufactured by Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget ( SAAB) between 1955 and 1974. Development of the Saab 35 Draken started in 1948 as the Swedish air fo ...

and

Saab 37 Viggen The Saab 37 Viggen (Swedish language, Swedish for ''"the thunderbolt, Bolt"'' or ''"the Tufted Duck"'' (#Name, see name)) is a retired Swedish single-seat, single-engine, short-medium range combat aircraft. Development work on the type was init ...

. Frid Wänström was awarded the Swedish Aeronautical Society's Thulin Medal both in silver 1948 and in gold in 1968,''Flygtekniska Föreningen Thulinmedaljen''
/ref> and contributed to the formation of the Saab Veterans Association. He is buried in Vårdnäs cemetery.

References

1905 births 1988 deaths Aircraft designers 20th-century Swedish engineers Aerodynamicists Swedish civil engineers {{Sweden-engineer-stub