On 24 october 1940 a Messerschmitt Bf 109E from 4./JG 77 was on a mission from its base in Norway. The pilot, Uffz Fröba lost his bearings and flew into swedish airspace. Running low on fuel he decided to land on the racetrack near Karlstad. On the soft ground the plane flipped over and ended on its back.
The plane was rather extensive damaged and the wreck was taken by the swedish airforce (Flygvapnet) for investigation.
The airframe was given to SAAB and the engine went to Volvo. The engineers of SAAB were working full time on the development of J 21 fighter, B 17 divebomber and B 18 light bomber, so the task of getting something usefull out of the german wreck was given to the austrian born Edmund Sparmann and his staff. Volvo set on a nice piece of reverse engineering and turned the DB 601 from a 12-cylinder 1100 HP engine into a 18-cylinder 1950 HP beast.
The Sparmann team came up with the E-7 project, which got the Flygvapnet deignation J 19. The prototype took to the air in december 1944 and on the third flight clocked 683 km/h, making it by far the fastest airplane in Sweden. A pre-serie J 19s were testet in the summer of 1945 and by the end of 1945 the J 19 fighters were getting into service by two units: F 8 defending the capital Stockholm and F 9 covering the west coast of Sweden.
14 februar 1946 the german forces in Northern Norway launched a surprise attack in the direction af Kiruna in an attempt to get control of the important iron mines. The J 19s from F 8 took part in ”Operation Pippi” - the swedish counter attack.
The basic of this build will be an old Revell Bf 109E, which I had the intention of turning into a Bf 109B – but that was in a other galaxy a long, long time ago.