DDD1: Saab 340 -- Design quirks & onboard a very special flight HD 1080p

Video from the channel Andras Sobester about Saab 340, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 55:27. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

First episode of an educational series by a University of Southampton professor analysing the design solutions of the Saab 340 and testing them in flight aboard G-NFLB, an instrumented 340B+ operated by Cranfield's National Flying Laboratory Centre (NFLC) as a flying classroom for aeronautical engineering students. The video combines ground explanations with graphs and an in-flight test session: stall warning and stick pusher, cruise performance, static and dynamic stability.

The aircraft began life as the SF 340, a joint Saab–Fairchild project for a regional turboprop seating about 30. After Fairchild withdrew in the mid-1980s it was renamed Saab 340A; an engine change produced the 340B, and the final version, the 340B+, added active noise cancellation, cabin improvements and gravel-runway capability, bringing the total to 459 units built. G-NFLB, built in 1998 as one of the last five produced, flew in the United States with Mesaba Airlines, was placed in storage at Bangor (Maine) in 2011, returned to Saab in 2014, and was refitted in 2021 for the NFLC, with a data-acquisition rack replacing the forward galley and yaw vanes added.

The tail has a large vertical rudder with a dorsal extension, two ventral fins and a horizontal stabiliser with about 15 degrees of dihedral. Both propellers rotate in the same direction, making the left engine the critical one; to compensate, the engines are canted 3 to 4 degrees to the right. The CT7-9Bs deliver 1,870 shaft horsepower, with flat-rated power up to 35°C, and drive four-blade composite Dowty-Rotol propellers. The wing has 7 degrees of dihedral, just under 21.5 m of span and an aspect ratio of around 11; each wing half carries 1,610 litres of fuel. In flight, the stall warning triggers about five knots above stall speed and the stick pusher about two knots above it, both activated by angle of attack. The pusher's authority over the elevator increased from 4 degrees on the 340A to 7.5 on the 340B. The test reached a maximum angle of attack of about 14 degrees, with load dropping to about 0.2 g. The video also shows 2 g turns with 60 degrees of bank, the phugoid, with a period of around a minute, and Dutch roll with and without the yaw damper.