Saab 340 Saab 340A

The aircraft that first flew on 25 January 1983 was not yet called the 340A: it carried the SF340 designation, the F standing for Fairchild, the US partner that built wings, tail unit and nacelles while Linköping took care of the fuselage and final assembly. When Fairchild pulled out of the aircraft business in the middle of the decade, Saab dropped the letter and the first generation became simply the 340A. The renaming changed nothing in the machine: the same two-pilot flight deck, the same aluminium structure with diffusion bonding borrowed from the company's military practice, and the same pair of 1735 shp CT7-5A2 turboprops.

With 159 airframes built (serials 340A-001 to 340A-159), the first generation was the one that opened the market: Crossair took its first aircraft in June 1984 and the type quickly became the best-selling commuter airliner in the world. Saab offered the 340A in passenger, VIP and cargo configurations, a flexibility that explains why so many airframes kept working long after they had left scheduled service.

The 340A aged well because its fatigue life was far longer than a typical day of short hops consumed. From 2002 Saab contracted Canada's Field Aviation to develop a freighter conversion aimed precisely at first-generation airframes, and the 340AF and 340A QC conversions have kept much of the series flying with blanked windows and a large cargo door in the side.