Italian WWII Fighters

[GTX]

Hi folks,

I couldn't find an appropriate thread, so here goes - whiffs for Italian WWII fighters.  To start, here are some FIAT G.55 whiffs I've done:





Regards,

Greg

[sequoiaranger]

Here's a whif made from a Yak-17 (jet engine faired into lower fuselage) and an Me-262 (wing engines and wings).

I presume that Italy steals some of Germany's jet engine technology, makes a slightly inferior product, but puts THREE engines on (typical Italian penchant for tri-motors).

[SSgt Baloo]

The Caproni Lampo was a development of the Caproni-Campini. It was smaller, lighter, and more significantly, faster and more maneuverable. The first prototype had a conventional tail with both  a vertical stabilizer and rudder and a horizontal stabilizer and elevator. When the P-50 began operations in the Battle for Britain, the designers decided that their plane would have a butterfly tail also. This delayed production and the Lampo didn't enter production until after the liberation of Italy.

The lampo was capable of cruising at 375 MPH. It was highly maneuverable and was more than a match for any propeller-driven plane with the possible exception of the FW-190, which had a slight edge in speed.

One hundred and five examples of the Lampo were produced, and served the Free Italian forces through the rest of the war and into the early fifties, by which time they had been relagated to trainer status.

[sequoiaranger]

Not an Italian subject, but did you know your "Royal Rangerplane" was a "real" whif, that is, a Westland P.12?

Picture (un-doctored) below

[Doc Yo]

 The most intriguing Italian whiff I can think of was a tri-motor heavy fighter. After a little searching,
I found the relevent thread at the Secret Projects Forum.

http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1339.0/highlight,italian.html

The aircraft in question is the IMAM RO 67 project-while I remember seeing the plan views for it there, I
gather the images are now only available to registered members. It doesn't look like it would be too
difficult to bash out of a trio of old Frog MC 202s, or some Supermodel 205s....

[SSgt Baloo]

Not an Italian subject, but did you know your "Royal Rangerplane" was a "real" whif, that is, a Westland P.12?

Picture (un-doctored) below

Yes. I just wanted to try doing that configuration as a "passenger" plane. From what I've read it had excellent handling qualities and was STOL or close to it.

[ChernayaAkula]

<...> To start, here are some FIAT G.55 whiffs I've done: <...>

Damn, those are sexy!

[Arc3371]

Reposting some I have used earlier

G-55/Me-109 hybrid


Better visibility G-55


Re-engined Re-2000´s

[starship1]

Doc Yo, I believe this is tha aircraft.

[sequoiaranger]

I can't imagine that the pilot can see ANYTHING from the cockpit that far back, with the wing and three engines blocking his forward vision. How would he ever land the thing?

I did, however have a trimotor Italian thing going, myself, once upon a time......

Mine would look almost identical from nose-on view ('cept the tri-tail in place of the twin).

[Sauragnmon]

Hmm... here's a thought for the trimotor heavy fighter...

Wings come back from the RO 67 a little, cockpit moves forward to sit a little closer to the engines.  Two heavy MG's in the cowling over the nose 603, 20/30mm motorcannon, maybe one in each engine for that matter.  Refit the gear to a tricycle gear, perhaps?

Just my thoughts.

[sequoiaranger]

>Refit the gear to a tricycle gear, perhaps?<

Now yer talkin'! It would look kinda like a Grumman P-50 (F5F Skyrocket).

>20/30mm motorcannon, maybe one in each engine for that matter.<

Though I had thought of that for my trimotor, I realized that it just wasn't done in reality, and I think I kinda figured out why.

The central engine points directly ahead--fine for a cannon to be aimed, and any roll of the plane still keeps the gun on target.

Any engine-mounted cannon out on the wings will be, by necessity, pointing straight ahead, too, parallel with the nose cannon (can't angle the guns inward to converge like ordinary wing guns). There seems to be only limited cases when this might be anywhere near efficient as a gun platform. It would be too rare to be lined up just right to shoot at another twin-engined plane (to hit the engine nacelles), that is, only a few degrees out of the 360 of possible angles.  Any slight roll and the guns are just shooting out into space.

Perhaps some MG's mounted over the engine, firing through the propeller arc like most single-engined Italian fighters, could be canted enough to converge, but unless the engine itself was canted in (creating a weird thrust vector), any driveshaft-mounted cannon would just fire straight ahead. It might work for ground attack (light trucks, buildings, tents, etc), but not fighter-vs-aircraft.

I love what I call "Celebes Island Camouflage"--those squiggly amoebas of green on sand.

[Sauragnmon]

Well my other thought might have been to put guns in the wings, but with the overlapped nature of the propellers, an interrupter gear would be a necessity, and hellishly short on rate of fire between synchronizing the propeller arcs.  I suggested two cowling guns as well, I was given to thought similar to the 109G-6 with the two heavy caliber MG's in the cowling and a cannon in the motor mount.  The other suggestion would be to add a belly mount with the additional cannons.  Put radiators in the wing root leading edges, another two possibly under the wing engines.  You could use license-built 605's, and probably get some quick performance out of it.

That's just my thoughts off the top of my head.

[GTX]

Continuing with my G.55 ideas - how about an extreme high altitude fighter with stretched wings and turbocharger (under fuselage):



Regards,

Greg

[Doc Yo]

 Veeery Innnteresting, GTX-I have a weakness for long winged birds, and that one looks mighty nice. I'd
suggest a cranked wing ( w-wing, inverted gull wing,  call it what you will ) but I can't call to mind a
single example of the Italian designers using the planform...


Starship 1- Thats the one! Thanks very much for linking the images.

Sequoia-Very nice concept, and a wonderful execution.