Following the German use of
airborne forces during the
invasion of France and the Low Countries in May–June 1940 (and in particular the successful
assault on the Belgian Fort Ében-Émael by glider-borne troops on 10–11 April), countries around Europe sought to develop their airborne troops, both
paratroopers and glider-borne forces. Sweden, although
neutral, found itself surrounded by potential hostile neighbours, with Swedish forces too small and poorly equipped to repel any potential invasion by
Nazi Germany or the
Soviet Union, and sought to build up its armed forces. In 1941, the
Swedish Air Force developed a requirement for a transport glider, capable of carrying up to 12 armed men and being towed by a single-engined
SAAB 17 bomber. The company selected to build the new glider was of
Halmstad, which had been established in 1937 to build German-designed training gliders under
license and maintain them. Work began on the new glider, called Fi-3 by AB Flyindustri, and Lg 105 by the Swedish Air Force, in 1942. It was a high-wing
monoplane of mixed construction, with the central part of the fuselage, housing the cabin, having a welded steel-tube structure with
plywood covering, with most of the rest of the airframe of wooden construction. Two pilots sat side-by-side in an enclosed
cockpit, while the main cabin had large upward opening doors for loading and unloading passengers and cargo. The aircraft had a
tricycle undercarriage, with a sprung skid under the nose and two mainwheels with balloon tyres attached to the fuselage.
Air brakes were fitted to the wings. ==Testing and production==