Italian Fighter Planes

Hey, even they could build a pretty good fighter.

Who can name the Italian fighter that could reach 399 MPH? Well armed to boot!

 

Hello.
The Macchi C202/205.

 

Fiat G.55 "Centauro", armed with up to 3 20mm cannon manouevrable, fast and well armed.

 

How about the Re. 2000 - I would consider it a reasonable aircraft for its appearence in 1940.

 

There would also be the Reggiane Re 2005.It was said to be at least equal to all other figthers of it's time.

 

It was only when the Germans sent Italy some of the Daimler-Benz 605 engines that the Italians finally developed decent fighters. There were never enough of them available, however, for truly mass production to take place.

 

It still goes to show that the Italians were capable of making some quality equipment, unlike the general impressino one get my looking at their tanks...

 

The reference material I have is from "Fighter Aircraft of WW II", by Bill Gunston.

Here is the fighter I was refering to: Macchi C. 202 and 205.

The engine was the Fiat RA1050 Tifone (Typhoon), 1,475 hp, 36,000 foot ceiling.

With this engine, the first flight was in 1942, the first delivery was summer of 1944.

The German airforce was impressed with the Italian fighter, with one MG151/20 in the nose cone and four 12.7mm in the wing roots.

Due to pathetic industrial capacity and production methods, only 48 were built.

An updated version the 250N with three MG151/20'S and two 12.7mm never made it into the air as a fighter.

Yes, they could build a good fighter, just like the Americans with their P51D not being a capable fighter until they recieved the RR powerplant.

 

The problem the Italians had wasn't design capability, it was production. By comparison with the huge, efficient production lines of the USA, Italian production was more like a cottage industry, with much equipment more or less hand-built in small numbers.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion
forum

 

I believe (going by memory admittedly) that the Tifone was just the Italian name for the licence built DB engines.

As also mentioned the Fiat G.55 was also a good aircraft, being little more than a re-engined G.50 with a DB engine.

The other factors affecting Italian aircraft production which have not been mentioned are of course the turmoil of the Allied invasion, armistice and German occupation of the Facist Republic in the North.

Also the Italian air force apparently believed in a diversification of types in their airforce, adopting many different aircraft all to fulfil the same role, this actually hampered their efforts so that rather than concentrating production on one or two good designs and producing as many as possible, they designed and built many incurring all the additional R&D problems and expenses many times over.

 

Now compare that with the amounts of aircraft being produced, out of harm's way, in Canada and the USA.

Cheers!

 

Yes, it definitely helps production when the enemy isn't bombing your war plants.

 

That was't actually the main problem. The UK's factories were bombed, but they were relatively efficiently organised and could produce planes at a high rate. Before the war, special large 'shadow factories' were set up (with advice from the car industry on mass production) and British production was actually better organised than in Germany - at least until Speer took over in 1944.

But Italian industry wasn't so well organised for mass production even before the war. The factories were small, and only used to producing small numbers of planes, rather slowly. Things didn't get better during the war.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion
forum

 

The UK plants were bombed by an air force whose planes were ill-suited to strategic bombing. Granted that they did do a goodly amount of damage, the bombloads the German meduims carried were far too small to seriously impact the British aviation industry, IMHO.

 

Against a specific target like a factory, medium bombers were more than capable of destroying them. Large bombloads became an advantage when they were trying to flatten a whole city, or carry huge 'earthquake' bombs.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion
forum

 

Your point is valid if the Luftwaffe mediums had been capable of delivering their bombs with pinpoint accuracy, which they could not. Even the USAAF B-17s had trouble doing so, and the Norden bombsight was a lot better than anything the Germans had in 1940.

 

Actually, the G.55 was a development of the G.50V, DB 601-powered "Freccia" whih served as an intermediate design betwen the G.50 and the vastly superior G-55. The .55A"Centauro" the RE 2005 and the Macchi were quite fast and maneuvrable aircraft-which could meet a Spitfire on even terms-and established an ascenndancy ovr the Curtiss P-40s and Hurricanes of the RAF. However, when the Germans seized control of Northern italy in 1943, and Mussolini established a puppet state known as the Republic of Salo, aircraft engine production aat the FIAT works not only declined in quantity but in quality as well. Engine components were conveniently"over-tempered" by Italian workmen, and as a result these motors were notoriously uneliable".Although the he G-55, RE 2005 and MC 205 were geat improvement over the G.50 and the MC 200, they were esentially similar aircraft, an unfortunate tendency to duplicate efforts and poor utilization of limited resources available.Here's a post-war shot of one of a number of Fiat G55A sold to the Argentine Air Force after WW2

 

Two aditional pics: The second prototype Fiat G.55A "Centauro (MM 492) at the Regia Aeronautica's experimental centre at Guidonia in 1942, and - the 2nd. prototype of the Fiat G.56 (MM 537) in Luftwaffe markings-First flown on 28 March 1944, The G.56 was similar to the G55, except that it employed a DB 603 engine, an enlarged version of the DB 605A rated at 1750 hp at sea level, 1850hp at 6890 ft, and 1650 hp at 18700 ft. While marginally less maneuvrable than the G.55, the G.56 had a top speed of 426 mph. According to Lufftwaffe accounts, in simulated combat with FW 190As and BF 109K-4s, the G.56 proved superior to both.

 

Italian planes were speedy , handled greatly , were maneuverable , but were under-powered and under-gunned.

 

Yeah and italian pilot wasnt always the best choice