You mean two aviation companies that became car builders.daniel-k wrote:Spyker + SAAB = two car companies with aviation heritage
SAAB - Svenska Aeroplan AktieBolagetaviodromefriend wrote:You mean two aviation companies that became car builders.daniel-k wrote:Spyker + SAAB = two car companies with aviation heritage
Nope, please check your facts before making bold statements...aviodromefriend wrote:You mean two aviation companies that became car builders.daniel-k wrote:Spyker + SAAB = two car companies with aviation heritage
Well, Daniel, that's not entirely true. SAAB started out in 1937 as a purely aircraft company, producing planes for the Swedish Air Force. It wasn't till 1944 that SAAB started to build cars. The SAAB aircraft company and SAAB car company were for a long time the very same company. Even today, the official SAAB car logo still has a plane in it. If you look back to the model numbers for civil products of SAAB cars and aircraft in the forties and fifties, you can see that they are in the very same range, meaning that for example SAAB 90 was an aircraft (the Scandia), SAAB 91 was an aircraft (the Safir), SAAB 92 and most up to 99 were cars.daniel-k wrote:To clearify - today's Saab aircraft company only shares the brand name with the Saab car company. There will be no Spyker Gripen...
Hmmm... I do wonder about the Saab B-17 till J-35 ? Or were they "different" as being entirely military products . The car and aviation department "separation proces" started from about 1989 onwards when General Motors acquired 51 percent of the stock. In 2000 GM bought the remaining shares.Herbertvh wrote:If you look back to the model numbers of the SAAB cars and aircraft in the forties and fifties, you can see that they are in the very same range, meaning that for example SAAB 90 was a car, SAAB 91 was an aircraft (the Safir), SAAB 92 was a car again. Type numbering got different after number 99. Lateron (don't know exactly when), it was decided to split the car and plane department and make each of them an independent company.daniel-k wrote:To clearify - today's Saab aircraft company only shares the brand name with the Saab car company. There will be no Spyker Gripen...
Cheers,
Herbert
Well, this was my point put in one sentence - as legal companies the two Saabs of today are totally separated.Herbertvh wrote:Well, Daniel, that's not entirely true. SAAB started out in 1937 as a purely aircraft company, producing planes for the Swedish Air Force. It wasn't till 1944 that SAAB started to build cars. The SAAB aircraft company and SAAB car company were for a long time the very same company. Even today, the official SAAB car logo still has a plane in it. If you look back to the model numbers for civil products of SAAB cars and aircraft in the forties and fifties, you can see that they are in the very same range, meaning that for example SAAB 90 was an aircraft (the Scandia), SAAB 91 was an aircraft (the Safir), SAAB 92 and most up to 99 were cars.daniel-k wrote:To clearify - today's Saab aircraft company only shares the brand name with the Saab car company. There will be no Spyker Gripen...
In 1969, it was decided to split the car and plane department and make each of them an independent company. SAAB car company merged with Scania to SAAB-Scania. In this timeframe, the type numbering got different but still had a 9 in them, with examples like SAAB 900, 9000 etc.
1989 Saw another split, with SAAB car company becoming independent from Scania again. General Motors and an investment company devided the shares, with GM later buying all the shares from the investment company, thus becoming the sole owner.
As you'll know, this week the Dutch car company Spyker bought the SAAB car company from GM.
As a reference: more about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_Automobile.
Cheers,
Herbert
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