Italy's 4 engined bomber

[gabriel pagliarani]

Hello,Here is a Good link

Sorry but it's in dutch,except the tabels(so you can read this )

http://users.skynet.be/milvlieg/index.htm

Best Regards

Axisfactbook...

I can see only fine Heinkel waterplanes

[SM79Sparviero]

Piaggio P112 :an improved version of P108, with better streamlined elevator and nose .

Piaggio P114:floatplane bomber-reconeissance version of P112

[Vincent S.]

Hello,


Yea,I'm sorry,but maybe it's "hidden" in the categorie :proefvliegtuigen(testplanes in English)

Good Luck

Axisfactbook....

[|AXiN|]

So can I take it that neither of these designs got very far?

[Scarlett]

Of the Piaggio P.108B a total of 163 was built.
After some nights attacks on Gibraltar in early 1942 the type saw service in the Mediterranean, North Africa and Russia theatres of operation.

The aircraft was very unreliable mechanically. Frequently they disappeared without a trace over the Mediterranean.

The deputy chief of air staff described the aircraft after the war as "vere debolezze volanti", which means roughly "flying feebleness".

The losses were such, that less than 5% of the 163 built servived to serve with the Republican Socialist airforce after the armistice with the Allies.

[SM79Sparviero]

The aircraft was very unreliable mechanically. Frequently they disappeared without a trace over the Mediterranean.

The deputy chief of air staff described the aircraft after the war as "vere debolezze volanti", which means roughly "flying feebleness

I don't think that P108 was less reliable than "flying lighter" Heinkel 177, for comparable motivations:they were both too young, they had unreliable engines....
P108 had not as long time as B17 , its inspiration source , to resolve its own troubles that were not different from the first ones of the newborn Flying Fortress.It was projected, built and launched on the battlefield in two years without those indispensable tests that could improve the first dangerous prototypes of B17 up to an operative validity.
More, the true winner of the B.G.R. italian public competition of 1938 ( Bombardiere a Grande Raggio=Long Range Bomber) was CANT Z 1014 , a superlative four engine bomber with a projected maximum speed over 500 km/H thanks to its streamlined narrow fuselage , with 6 20 MM guns for its defence.
Piaggio won the competition only because they later offered P108 with a 50 % discount.

I think that CZ 1014 neither could overcome the troubles of its engines , Alfa Romeo 135 or Piaggio P XII:
Poor steel alloys for the lacking of chrome and nickel for cylinders and valves;no turbochargers ,that would have been anyway unreliable for the same motivations;"autarchic" rubber for the pistons ; high stroke/bore ratio to improve engine power just to keep the same cylinder head ( the most problematic component of the engine) as the original Gnome-Rhone or Bristol projects , with a consequent too high linear speed of the pistons and too high torque on the rods and on their connections with the shaft, , it would work for a ride on a Harley-Davidson at 80 Km/h or for the job of a tractor at 15 Km/h or a Chevrolet Corvette ( "nothing is better than cubic inches") but it wouldn't for an aeronautical engine that works at high RPM for most of its time.

[Volklin]

that's a beautiful craft

[SM79Sparviero]

Cant Z1014, from "Le Officine aeronautiche CANT" 1923-1945 , by Gianfranco Garello and Decio Murri, Aeronautica Militare historical office

[Andreas]

A post on Luftwaffe ammunition was split off:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=84999

All the best

Andreas

[|AXiN|]

Were there any further developments of the Cant Z 1014? It's not easy to find information on Italian strategic bombers in the English language, and you seem to have some very good sources.

[Cantankerous]

Were there any further developments of the Cant Z 1014? It's not easy to find information on Italian strategic bombers in the English language, and you seem to have some very good sources.

There was apparently a precursor design to the CANT Z.1014, the four-engine Z.1008 (see list of aircraft designs envisaged by the CANT company), but there were no further developments of the Z.1014. In retrospect, the Z.1014 competed with the Piaggio P.108 but the Regia Aeronautica selected the P.108 rather than the Z.1014 for production anyway.