Italian Forces

The faster biplane of the world

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The only prototype of the Fiat CR.42DB likely at Guidonia, Summer 1941. The proposal of couple the CR.42’s airframe with the in-line German engine Daimler-Benz DB601 was promoted by Lt. Col. Ferruccio Vosilla, former leader of 18th Gruppo Caccia (18th Fighter Group) during the unlucky Regia Aeronautica’s participation to the Battle of Britain. Vosilla, still strenuous defender of the biplane despite the tragic experience of the CR.42’s over the Channel, asserted the convenience of the coupling the handling characteristic of the biplane with the performances of the in-line engine thanks also to reduced front section of the latter. Obviously the Fiat gave your best for support the Vosilla’s proposal all the more which had achieved on 26 September 1939 by the Ministero dell’Aeronautica (Air Ministry) the production’s license of the Daimler-Benz DB601 purchased by the same Ministry on 1939. Achieving the license’s production of the DB601, Fiat abandoned two own design of in-line liquid-cooled engines for committing itself to building of the German engine and on 19 December 1940 received the Air Ministry’s order to prepare the tools for the DB601’s production. In the meantime some DB601 was delivered directly by Germany. One of them was installed by Giuseppe Gabrielli – the designer of the Fiat’s monoplanes – into a G.50’s airframe, but only for experimental purposes, while the other was allocated to CR.42 assembling into the airframe military registration MM469 an engine cradle of the Macchi MC.202, already in development and production, without serious problems. On March 1941 the plane, named CR.42DB, flew for the first time, test pilot Valentino Cus. The tests of the CR.42DB (1,175 HP) disclosed outstanding performances respect the normal CR.42 with the 840 HP radial engine despite the growth of the weight (maximum weight 2,730 kg against 2,295 kg): climb to 3,000 meter 3’202 (4’15” for the CR.42 radial engine), to 5,000 meter 5’40” (7’20”), to 6,000 meter 7’ (9’), with a maximum level speed on the order of 520 km/h, against the 342 km/h at 1,000 meter, 430 km/h at 5,000 meter, of the CR.42 standard. With a similar speed the CR.42DB was likely one of the faster biplane of the world. After the tests at Turin, on Summer 1941 the CR.42DB was transferred to Guidonia’s Flight Test Center for military evaluations while Fiat pressed the Regia Aeronautica’s authorities for the acceptance of a series version of the aircraft. But, finally, the Air Force’s high ranks realized the uselessness of a similar airplane and the end of the biplane’s formula (despite this, on 1943 on the eve of the jet age the CR.42 were still in mass production!) and the Fiat’s proposal was abandoned in favor of the DB601’s use for the modern fighter monoplanes Macchi MC.202 and Reggiane Re.2001. Also the Fiat proposal of a two-seat recce plane developed from the CR.42DB was let fall. Victor Sierra