Saab 340 Saab 340B

The 340B, introduced in 1989, was Saab's answer to what the airlines were asking for after five years in service: field and hot-day performance. The recipe was straightforward — 1870 shp General Electric CT7-9B turboprops in place of the CT7-5A2 and a wider horizontal stabiliser — and it lifted maximum cruise speed to 283 knots, 524 km/h, with the same 7620 m operating ceiling.

With 200 airframes (serials 340B-160 to 340B-359), the 340B is the variant the data sheets mean when they say «Saab 340»: 34 seats in the most common layout, two pilots, an 8618 kg operating empty weight and a 29,000 lb take-off maximum that a later service bulletin raised to 30,000. Almost everything military in the programme was built on this generation too, from the Swedish early-warning aircraft to the Tp 100 VIP transports.

Two optional 340B improvements ended up shaping the aircraft's future: the active noise and vibration control system, standard from 1994, and the extended wingtips fitted to some thirty aircraft before becoming general on the 340B Plus. The structure turned out to be the model's greatest virtue: certified airframe life was later extended to 80,000 flight hours and 90,000 cycles, which is why around 250 Saab 340s were still active worldwide in 2023, most of them second generation.