List of Regia Aeronautica aircraft used in World War II

List of Regia Aeronautica aircraft used in World War II - Wikipedia

A list of aircraft used by Italy during World War II until its capitulation to the Allies in September 1943. Aircraft marked in pink were captured, aircraft in blue did not progress past prototypes.

Caproni Campini Ca.183bis

In 1942 Caproni began construction on a high-altitude fighter using prop and jet thrust. The Caproni CA 183bis had a DB 605 of 1,250 HP in the nose driving two three-blade contra-rotating props with a 700 HP Fiat A.30 radial behind the cockpit driving a Campini compressor expected to furnish a 60 MPH boost of jet thrust for an optimistic maximum speed of 460 MPH with a range of 1242 miles. One 20 mm was to be in the prop hub with four more in the wings. Weight was to be 16,538 lbs. with a 48-foot wingspan.

The CA 183 was not all that complicated though performance expectations seems optimistic.

Engine: 1x Alfa-Romeo "Tifone"(Daimler-Benz DB-605) making 1,250 hp driving a six blade contrarotating propellor.
1x FIAT A.30 radial piston engine making 700 hp driving the Campini engine
Weight: Loaded 16.538 lb
Maximum Speed: 460 mph / 520 mph with "Thermojet"
Range: 1,242 miles
Crew: 1
Armament: 4x 20 mm cannons in the wings and 1x 30 mm cannon between the cylinder banks of the engine.

The Italians already had knowledge of the German jets through their Rome-Berlin pact and worked together at Riva del Garda (Re- named the Hermann Goering Institute) on advanced jet designs that included a Turboproietti Jet Round Bomb (Italian V-1 type unmanned weapon) and a disc aircraft with two slung turbojets, various rim intakes for another internal engine, a domed canopy, and two canted tailfins. This was only discovered recently after the designer died and the plans were discovered in his apt. Apparently, this is probably what Mussolini referred to as the "Piastra di Volo" (Flying Plate) design.

The Germans for their part provided Italy with DB engines that improved their fighter and bomber designs of Fiat, Macchi, and Savoia- Marchetti. Jumos were on order for the Re.2007 and Piaggio's chief designer D'Ascanio requested information on the BMW 003 for a radical jet helicopter he was designing.

But the war ended for Italy and a lot of documents went missing or destroyed. D-Ascanio postwar experimented with a turbine helicopter, but is better known as the inventor of the Vespa moto-scooter! Most of the other manufacturers either went under or became merged in jet manufacture.

Might Have Beens: Italian Twin-Engined Fighters, 1943

Rounds of Ammo on Italian Fighters

MC.200 - 2x 370/12.7mm

MC.202 (series I-V) - 2x 360/12.7mm

MC.202 (series VI-XI) - 2x 360/12.7mm + 2x 500/7.7mm

MC.205V (series I) - 2x 400/12.7mm + 2x 500/7.7mm

MC.205V (series II) - 2x 250/20mm + 2x 400/12.7mm

MC.205N1 - 1x 200/20mm + 2x 400/12.7mm + 2x 300/12.7mm

MC.205N2 - 1x 200/20mm + 2x 250/20mm + 2x 400/12.7mm

Re.2000 2x 300/12.7mm

Re.2001 2x 350/12.7mm + 2x 600/7.7mm

Re.2001C.N. [not all of them] 2x ?/20mm + 2x 350/12.7mm [1]

Re.2002 1x 450/12.7mm (right) + 1x 390/12.7mm (left) + 1x 290/7.7mm (right) + 1x 350/7.7mm (left)

Re.2005 2x 200/20mm 1x 150/20mm + + 2x 350/12.7mm

G.55 1x 250/20mm + 2x 200/20mm + 2x 300/12.7mm

[1] I think that these guns had probably the same ammo as the Bf 109G6/R6, since the installation of these two planes looks very similar (I have no idea of the ammo number). This means that a sizeable amount of MG 151 (100? 200?) must have been consigned during 1942.

Caproni-Campini N.1 (CC.1 & CC.2)

The Caproni-Campini N.1 used an ingenious way of propelling itself. The piston engine inside the fuselage drove a ducted fan and fuel was bled and ignited in the compressed air emitted through the tailpipe. With a maximum speed of only 375 km/h (233 mph), the N.1 served only to prove its propulsion concept was possible. The design limitations meant that development would be fruitless, and as Italy's war effort gained momentum, thoughts turned to more immediate problems.


It is perhaps surprising at first sight that, having been the second nation to fly an air-breathing jet-propelled aeroplane, Italy did not feature among the leading nations in this field of technology. But in truth the Caproni-Campini N.1 was no more than an ingenious freak which employed a conventional piston engine to drive a variable-pitch ducted-fan compressor with rudimentary afterburning. As such it did nothing to further gas turbine research, and was to all intents and purposes a technical dead-end. The engineer Secondo Campini had created a company in 1931 to pursue research into reaction propulsion and in 1939 persuaded Caproni to build an aircraft to accommodate the fruits of this work, namely the adaptation of an Isotta- Fraschini radial engine driving a ducted-fan compressor; the compressed air was exhausted through a variable-area nozzle in the aircraft's extreme tail, and additional fuel could be ignited in the tailpipe to increase thrust. The two-seat low-wing N.1 (sometimes referred to as the CC.2) was first flown at Taliedo on 28 August 1940 by Mario de Bernadi. A number of set-piece demonstration flights was undertaken, including one of 270km from Taliedo to Gindoma at an average speed of 209km/h, but it was clear from the outset that use of a three-stage fan compressor driven by a piston engine would limit further development, and the experiment was abandoned early in 1942 when Italy was faced with sterner priorities. The N.1 survives today in the Museo della Scienza Technica at Milan as a monument to ingenuity if not sophisticated technology.

Specifications]
General characteristics
    Crew: two
    Length: 13.10 m (43 ft)
    Wingspan: 15.85 m (52 ft)
    Height: 4.7 m (15 ft 5 in)
    Wing area: 36.00 m² (387.5 ft²)
    Empty weight: 3,640 kg (8,024 lb)
    Max. takeoff weight: 4,195 kg (9,250 lb)
    Powerplant: 1 × 670 kW Isotta Fraschini liquid-cooled V12 engine motorjet, resulting in 6.9 kN (1,550 lbf)
    Piston engine drove a three-stage axial compressor for the thermojet with variable pitch vanes
Performance
    Maximum speed: 375 km/h (233 mph)
    Service ceiling: 4,000 m (13,300 ft)